Jon L. Christensen: “I too rise in shock and dismay over the events that unfolded on the campus of Virginia Technical Institute on Monday…”

“I too rise in shock and dismay over the events that unfolded on the campus of Virginia Technical Institute on Monday this week. My community is fortunate that none of our students there were injured or killed, but our grief remains at the loss of the 31 students and teachers who were killed, and the obviously disturbed young man who orchestrated this horrible tragedy. When we send our children off to College, we do so with anxiety just because they are leaving the ``nest''. They are growing up and the relationship between us is changing. Never in our wildest imagination or fears do we think that we are sending them into harms way. All of that changed on Monday! And so I sadly join my colleagues in support of H. Res. 306 to offer the heartfelt condolences on behalf of the people of the U.S. Virgin Islands to the victims, their families, their fellow students and faculty. In doing so I take this opportunity to also remember the losses suffered at Kent state, I have a dear friend, Corinne Forbes Plaskett who was a student there at the time. She has never forgotten the horror of that experience and I am sure the events of Monday have reawakened memories for her and others who were there at that time in Ohio. May God bless all who were affected by both events, and may He bless us all!”