"Concert for Virginia Tech"

With a fairly large contingent of Virginia Tech alumnus within the Chesterfield community it is my hope that the "Concert for Virginia Tech" scheduled for Sept. 6 at Lane Stadium will be embraced and supported by all of us.

There has been some criticism of the concert, in large part from representatives of the families who lost loved ones back in April, claiming that Virginia Tech is somehow exploiting the trajedy.

Vincent Bove, representing families, had the audacity to claim that Virginia Tech is turning this into a "vaudeville show". I could not disagree more. The University was approached by Dave Mathews Band attempting to organize a free concert in support of the survivors of the trajedy as well as to honor those that were lost. To portray the University has having alterior motives in an attempt to "gain publicity".

I think the trajedy itself elevated Virginia Tech's visibility to such enormous proportions that the University does not need to have a free concert for the betterment of itself. The concert is for the student body and is scheduled in a timely manner at the beginning of the school year as a means of attempting to move past and begin a new for the upcoming school year.

While I would have liked to have seen more diligence in terms of the performers (ie Nas and questionable lyrics) I am a firm believer that there is indeed a time for everything under God.

There is a time to mourn, but certainly there is also a time to sing and dance and four months after the trajedy maybe the University has a right to celebrate and embrace the lives of those who have survived as much as we should mourn the ones we lost.