In class today we were discussing the fact that information technology (IT) has become a basic item of infrastructure like water, and sewer, and telephone. That has not always been the case, but it is true today. Organizations rely on IT to operate in the 21st century..... there are still a few hold outs, but not many. We were talking about safeguarding our IT with things like fire walls, passwords, and virus protection. And I made my standard joke that the fire wall at ETSU used to be called a fire screen door - not a fire wall.

Well, here is my point, and I know it is in poor form to have to tell your readers when you are making a point, but I just did anyway....... The purpose of the university is to foster a learning environment in which there is an open exchange of thought. No locks on our minds and no closed doors to our ideas. No fire walls, just fire screen doors.

While the rest of the world lives behind locked doors, including our church, the university invites visitors to come and go without having ids checked and metal metal detectors at every entrance.

Yesterday the open environment was threatened by someone who must have lost touch with their spiritual compass. No need to relive the facts of the violence that occurred at Virginia Tech University. I watched in silence today as they began the healing process without a word of reprisal or vengeance, but only words of healing and the hope for a return to sanity within their community.

I got up this morning thinking that maybe I had been teaching long enough and that it was time to stop doing it. But I went to class and remembered that teaching in the university is the one place that remains open to thought, difference in opinion, and true hope for the future on the faces of the 20somethings that I am in contact with every day. Why would I want to stop doing that?

So I pray to God and the spirits of the universe to keep our learning environment open so that those yet to come may have a better place to live.

God bless you, john