Bryan Zuckor, 14, and Randy Gordon, 17.
For these two young men, Monday became the day -- the day ordained they should senselessly die.
Once again, here we go seeing the faces of the anguished and grieving parents, the shocked and numb classmates, the proverbial newspaper column saying how it's society's fault and the politician who thinks the answer is gun control.
But how many times will be too many?
How many more have to die before we find real solutions?
How much more blood has to be spilt before we, collectively as humans, say enough is enough?
For Bryan Zuckor and Randy Gordon, the answer comes too late.
Cut down in their prime.
They will never experience a college football or basketball game, rush a fraternity, pull an all-nighter, and hang out with friends to whenever they -- not their parents --choose.
Did they get a chance to experience their first kiss?
Did they tell their parents I love you?
Did they take time to just enjoy a sunny spring day?
Questions that never should be asked of a 14- or 17-year-old.
But for many teenagers, questions asked all too often in the past few years.
Please don't come at me with statistics that show school violence decreasing. Statistics are devices to make us feel good.
For Bryan Zuckor and Randy Gordon, Monday became the day statistics became their enemy.
Actually their enemy was a scrawny little kid who says he got picked on.
At the danger of sounding callous and blunt, boo-hoo. He is still a criminal!
He willingly stole a gun, he willingly loaded it with bullets, and he shot not once, not twice, but repeatedly, over and over and over again. And when the shots ended, there lay the end of two promising lives -- the lives of Bryan Zuckor and Randy Gordon.
I got picked on, just like a lot of other people. But I dealt, and so do most other taunted people, without the use of weapons.
What next? A bazooka into the back of a kid who calls another one a nerd? WAKE UP!
Bryan Zuckor and Randy Gordon were not statistics, they were young people.
Tonight, I shall leave the light on.
I plan to walk across campus. I am asking you to join me on the alumni mall at 9:30 p.m. Before you come, leave on as many lights as you have -- your porch, your room, your lamps.
I know you have exams and classes and sleep, but send a message. Let your light shine and send a message.
Send a message to your friends and fellow classmates at The U of M.
A message that Bryan Zuckor and Randy Gordon are not another statistic.
