{"id":503,"date":"2007-04-20T11:45:46","date_gmt":"2007-04-20T16:45:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gardnercampbell.net\/blog1\/?p=503"},"modified":"2007-04-20T11:45:46","modified_gmt":"2007-04-20T16:45:46","slug":"a-chain-of-hope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gardnercampbell.net\/blog1\/a-chain-of-hope\/","title":{"rendered":"A chain of hope"},"content":{"rendered":"

From the article in Fredericksburg.com<\/a>:<\/p>\n

At noon Friday, the University of Mary Washington will observe the statewide day of mourning declared by Gov. Timothy Kaine for the victims of the tragedy at Virginia Tech by creating a human “Chain of Hope” along Campus Walk starting at the bell tower. A moment of silence will be observed.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I just came back from this memorial. I need to say something.<\/p>\n

At 11:55, I arrived at the site along with a colleague and a student. There was no chain of hope on the horizon that I could see. A sign pointed to an “admissions event.” A snackmobile was parked on the far sidewalk. People were walking back and forth, chatting under a bright warm sun.<\/p>\n

I wondered if I had gotten the time or location wrong. To my left, I saw some women wearing orange clothing and orange ribbons. I asked one if I had come to the right place and time for the chain of hope. She said she thought so.<\/p>\n

At 11:57, nothing had changed. People stood and milled about.<\/p>\n

At 11:58, everything began to change.<\/p>\n

At 11:59, a line had formed, stretching from the new bell tower as far as I could see down campus walk.<\/p>\n

Then a woman said, “it’s noon, everyone.” Silence emerged from the sound of a second ago.<\/p>\n

We stood holding hands in that silence. Photographers and videographers walked up and down, documenting the moment. We stood a long time. I sensed that none of us wanted to let go.<\/p>\n

After what might have been five minutes, applause sounded all up and down the line, so that the chain need never break.<\/p>\n

Something got to the core of me as I watched individual agency form itself into community in that minute between 11:58 and 11:59. I wish we could find and enact this affirmation every day, just because it is another day, and we are together.<\/p>\n

It will flame out, like shining from shook foil,
\nIt gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
\nCrushed.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From the article in Fredericksburg.com: At noon Friday, the University of Mary Washington will observe the statewide day of mourning declared by Gov. Timothy Kaine for the victims of the tragedy at Virginia Tech by creating a human “Chain of … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4bHwM-87","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gardnercampbell.net\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gardnercampbell.net\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gardnercampbell.net\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gardnercampbell.net\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gardnercampbell.net\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=503"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.gardnercampbell.net\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gardnercampbell.net\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gardnercampbell.net\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gardnercampbell.net\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}