Remembering Beslan, Sept 3

Last year we spent three hours at church one afternoon with Russian representatives from North Ossetia, talking on the subject of faith in the aftermath of tragedy.

Many of these delegates were psychologists or social service professionals who had dealt with the aftermath of the Beslan School Hostage crisis, September 1-3, 2004.

At the end of this siege on September 3, there were nearly a thousand casualties, including the death of 334 hostages, of which 186 were children.

These workers had come to Virginia Tech a year after our 4.16 to dialogue with us. Most of the representatives were Russian Orthodox and spoke freely of their faith and relationship to the church.

It was a precious and intensely moving time.

One of them, a social worker, said that there is no problem for mental health professionals to advise their counselees to seek God and attend church, something not usually allowed to American mental health professionals.

They said, "There is no possible answer in this life for these kinds of tragedies."

I told them we would remember the anniversary of their loss.

And it is very important to remember.

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