[…] We are Virginia Tech We do not understand this tragedy We know we did nothing to deserve it But neither does a child in Africa Dying of AIDS Neither do the Invisible Children Walking the night away to avoid being captured by a rogue army Neither does the baby elephant watching his community Be devastated for ivory Neither does the Mexican child looking For fresh water Neither does the Iraqi teenager dodging bombs Neither does the Appalachian infant killed By a boulder Dislodged Because the land was destabilized […]

In answer to the subject-line’s question, you might guess, “an angst-ridden high schooler trying his best.”

But you’d be wrong. The above is part of a free-verse poem written by Nikki Giovanni (the professor who insisted Cho be pulled from her class) and read at VT’s recent convocation. It’s now on the English Department’s homepage in full.

In the face of a tragedy that might leave some searching for words, at least there’s an academic out there who’s willing to put it all in context with the obvious comparison to the plight of the “baby elephant” set upon by poachers.

UPDATE: Originally, I’d named Giovanni as the professor who’d given Cho private tutoring. She was the professor from whose class Cho was pulled, not the professor who gave him private tutoring.

Thanks to a VT faculty member, who sent in this message:

My friend Nikki Giovanni is indeed a stereotypical liberal in her politics. But she is a heroine of the Cho atrocity. She endangered her career by flatly refusing to let him stay in her class when it became clear how dangerously disturbed he was.
It was her department head [Lucinda Roy], knees quivering for fear of lawyers waving the ADA, who gave him private tutoring.
–[name withheld]