[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 6]
[Senate]
[Page 8927]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        TRAGEDY AT VIRGINIA TECH

  Mr. DURBIN. First, Mr. President, let me say that every parent 
remembers when their kids left the nest. There is that moment when they 
finally reach that age where they are off to college. I can recall when 
Loretta and I took our three kids off to their colleges of choice. It 
was kind of an emotional moment, with mixed feelings: proud they had 
reached this point in their lives when they were off on their own, sad 
that now they are leaving their little family setting that had been so 
familiar and so happy for so many years. But you knew if you were lucky 
enough as a parent to have attended college that they were facing an 
extraordinary personal opportunity to go to college and meet so many 
other students and expand their horizons and learn what it means to 
live on your own resources.
  So that is why the tragedy of Virginia Tech is so sad, that the happy 
setting of college, where parents have entrusted their students to the 
university campus, can turn into a scene of horror as we found 
yesterday in Blacksburg, VA. We are all stunned and heartsick over the 
staggering and incomprehensible loss of life yesterday. We offer our 
deepest condolences to the families who lost precious sons and 
daughters in that shooting rampage, and to the victims who survived it.
  As police search for clues, I hope those of us in Congress will come 
together to also search honestly for answers about what can be done to 
prevent another tragedy. This has been billed as the worst massacre in 
American history on a school or college campus. I can still recall 8 
years ago in the room behind me, the cloakroom, when we heard of the 
Columbine shooting when 15 students lost their lives. In Blacksburg, 
the estimate is somewhere between 32 or 33 who have lost their lives. 
It is unspeakable to think about the placid setting of that college 
campus turning into a bloody scene yesterday morning. Now we will go 
about the grim task of identifying those who were injured and burying 
the remains of the ones who were killed as the Nation grieves with 
Virginia Tech University.

                          ____________________