Tragedy brings perspective

Flags around campus have been flown at half-staff throughout the school year mourning the losses of Chief Justice William Rehnquist, the victims of Hurricane Katrina and now nine of our own. I was out playing Ultimate Frisbee on the Quad Monday evening with a few friends when I heard about the accident. A news crew told us about what had happened just a few hours earlier. I went home and called my cousin, an Agriculture major, to make sure he was OK. Upon hearing the news, I imagine many others did the same. All your cares, your studies, work and overall busy-ness doesn’t seem to matter all that much after something like this happens. Only when life is takenso suddenly do we begin to realize how precious it really is. Frequently we pray for protection in our travels, but rarely do we realize how often we truly are protected. A blown-out tire can happen to any of us. This timeit happened to some of our finest. To Jared Nelson and Robert Peterson, survivors still trying to recover from the accident, our prayers are with you. Together, we as a university family mourn the loss of our friends. Tuesday night’s vigil was held to mourn the deaths of our peers Evan Parker, Steven Bair,Dusty Fuhriman, Justin Gunnell, Justin Huggins, Jonathan Jorgensen, Curt Madsen, Ryan McEntire and Bradley Wilcox. But we also came to cheer on the two of you. We’re all in this together. God bless.