Derb and I received the following from a VT professor this morning (Mr Granata was a biomechanics professor and a veteran):

My wife and daughter attended Kevin Granata’s memorial service today… (Kevin’s daughter is a friend of my daughter.)
I realize that eulogies are not the greatest sources of accurate information (at least I hope mine is not) but I thought I’d pass on a few things. Seems that Granata was not teaching on the second floor at that time of the shooting. The story is that he locked the people that were visiting him for office hours in his office and went down the stairs to investigate and help. He confronted the killer unarmed and died. This is more than I remembered from the Post story. I thought you might be interested.
I’ve been around screw ups at this place and others where the millipede keeps dropping shoes and the situation looks worse and worse. I’ve been impressed that in this case each new disclosure comes out at least marginally in our favor. As I’ve said before, out failure is manifest – 32 kids (I guess in terms of our failure we can up that to 33) died. But inattention, carelessness, and the like seem to be less a factor the closer we look. (Thought we are still in the early days of the investigation.) Yes, systemic rot is a problem. Privacy laws are too tight. VT’s code of conduct is too loose…
I have generally approved of both of your comments on the “rot” in our culture. In theory I want to deplore the “therapeutic mindset.” But I wonder how either of you would approach the return of the VT students. I wonder how each of you would view the fact that I invariably choke up when I see parents and students walking around campus. My first class is going to be hard. I’m not a touchy feely guy, but what could be more touchy feely than a professor crying because he’s glad to see his students alive… This time I’m going with the touchy-feely guys.

That’s the right thing to do – in your case. When your daughter’s friend’s dad has been murdered, I’m all for being touchy-feely. But the nationwide generic Hallmark Greetings Card touchy-feeliness of the network coverage is a little different. Yesterday Peggy Noonan wrote very perceptively:

I wondered about the emptiness of the phrases used by the media and by political figures, and how pro forma and lifeless and cold they are. The formalized language of loss hasn’t kept up with the number of tragedies. “A nation mourns.” “Our prayers are with you.” The latter is both self-complimenting and of dubious believability. Did you really pray? Or is it just a phrase?