When tragedy strikes, Americans have a way of coming together.

This unity offers comfort and support that ultimately leads to a sense of healing.

As the Virginia Tech campus bleeds, cries and searches for answers, Americans again stand united.

When an assailant is able to open fire on the bright, young minds of tomorrow, our country is outraged, and rightly so.

Americans want answers. As more information seeps out each day, everyone will form their own theories about who is to blame for the tragedy.

Maybe the university officials could have notified students more efficiently.

Maybe the police should not have assumed the first round of shootings was an isolated incident.

Maybe if doctors or counselors would have placed Cho Seung-Hui, the disturbed shooter, on an aggressive treatment plan, these deaths could have been avoided.

Maybe.

Looking back, it is easy to play the blame game and toss around shoulda, coulda, wouldas at the water cooler, but that will not heal our wounds.

We can scrutinize every minute detail of Cho’s life and conduct examinations of the police’s and university’s roles in the investigation.

The one thing we will be able to make sense of is that the Virginia Tech massacre will always be senseless.

The students who lost their lives were never allowed to reach their full potential. They could have been doctors, lawyers or future presidents.

But now, instead of planning graduation parties, their parents are making funeral arrangements. This was not supposed to happen in the quaint mountain town of Blacksburg, Va.

But the reality is this could have happened anywhere on any college campus.

After the Columbine shootings in 1999, American educators took a hard look at security on campus.
Vigilance was encouraged and students were warned of “loners.” Many campuses implemented increased security measures—some even banning the use of backpacks.

But in the aftermath of Sept. 11, Americans mainly associate terrorist threats with al-Qaida and other militant groups abroad.

We feel safe because we have heightened terror alerts and our shoes are x-rayed at the airport.

And then we are blindsided when history repeats itself, and we are attacked by one of our own that somehow slipped through the cracks.

It serves as a grave reminder that hijacked planes are not the only threat to Americans.

And sadly, no matter what could have, should have or would have been done, we likely would not have been able to keep history from repeating itself. Nor will we in the future.

But after all is said and done, our unity will continue to make us stronger as a nation.