This Friday, wear orange and maroon, and remember

Susan Wagner — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 09:40:13 -0500

Members of the Virginia Tech community will mark tomorrow, Friday April 20, as a day of mourning for the 32 students and faculty killed on Monday. The University's Alumni Association is asking all of us to participate and show our support by wearing the school's colors on what they are calling "Orange and Maroon Effect Day."

An article in today's Washington Times explains the name:

Jennifer MacDonald, an adviser with the alumni association's student program, said the designation began a few years ago as a way for students, alumni and fans to show school spirit at sporting events.

"The idea to [designate tomorrow] began as an e-mail circulating that picked up steam," she said. "So now we're asking everyone to wear orange and maroon, as a show of solidarity."

I have spent the past few days watching this story unfold with disbelief and horror and tremendous sadness. Yesterday afternoon, I listened to NPR's interview with Clay Violand and wept. Violand was in a French class Monday morning where eleven students and the professor died. He talked about lying under a desk, staring into the eyes of another student, a young woman who had been shot:

And the girl I was with was really brave. She didn't cry the whole time. I know she got shot in the back, and I was looking at her in the eyes most of the time when we were under those desks, just, kind of, staying human. I didn't even know her name, actually. I didn't talk to her much in class, but we just kept eye contact a lot of the time, and they sat her down and looked at her gunshot wound, and I remember they said it's superficial and she'll be OK. I was just really glad to hear that and I gave her a hug.

In the end, human contact is what keeps us moving forward, what heals us. I write all the time about how what you wear says something about you; tomorrow, let your clothes say that you are mourning with the Virginia Tech students and faculty and families. Wearing maroon and orange is such a simple gesture, but the gesture, the reminder that we value human contact, is so very important.

Susan Wagner writes about fashion at Friday Style and about everything else at Friday Playdate.

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This Friday, wear orange and maroon, and remember