What Is A Hokie?

"I am a Hokie." That was the response from a young lady when Chris Cuomo asked "What is a Hokie?" It was during a special Tuesday night by ABC news.

My college pride is mildly abundant. OK, maybe some would say it's overwhelmingly abundant. I get excited with the slightest mention of my school. But there is some notoriety that a campus just does not want. No one wants to see aerial maps of their campus that detail where people were killed, to watch students crying because of lost friends, or to have the U.S. President visit campus only to provide condolences.

Watching the students gather and proudly wear their VTech attire truly is special to me. The gestures of unity, spirit and pride, I pray, will provide them the comfort they need. I also hope it will fuel their determination to heal. They are Virginia Tech Hokies.

Social web pages are proving to be an interesting part of the unfolding story. For many of us, we write knowing it's being posted "out there," but somehow still think it is private. We think, "Surely no one is reading this."

Tonight's ABC special included heaps of information from the pages of people's sites. The sites essentially were the "sources" for the stories. There was not a "human" being interviewed like I had to do in my old journalism days. What we write and post for our social network, even if it is a blogosphere of cats, are the sources.

We really are part of a unique community. A community that could potentially allow millions to know something about us.