I don’t have a lot to say about the Virginia Tech tragedy. It’s unspeakably heartbreaking, sick, and sad. And everywhere you turn you’re reminded of this. Round the clock news coverage of today’s ceremony, interviews with loved ones, background on the killer, etc. I don’t want to pile on here. But I did want to comment on something which I find quite striking out of all this:

The newfound eternity of a tragic face.

I realized then, that typically when someone passed away, there was an obituary in the newspaper, a funeral service, and then they would live on only in our memories. Today, and I think we’ll see it play out in this case, the face of tragedy will live on for the world to see. through their facebook profile. through their myspace. through their blogs. through flickr. Because the majority of the victims were college students, and they’re the most likely to have a massive online footprint, they become all the more amazingly human to us. Their profiles will no doubt fill-up with wall posts and comments on shared memories and displays of grief. The face of grief doesn’t go away, it doesn’t get buried– today it lives on.

In this case with no one to face trial, these “living” memorials will mean the most to family and loved ones. But the implications in other tragedies are farther and wider: the deceased soldiers of unpopular wars, victims of corporate negligence, police brutality, etc. Regardless of the case, anywhere the party responsible wants nothing more than for the public to not put a human face on the results of what they’ve done, the Internet will keep their face at the forefront. Their favorite song will be playing through mySpace. Their pictures up on Flickr and facebook. Their thoughts of the world posted on their blog. With each link of their life posting on their pages keeping their memory alive and the forefront.

Tragedy lives on for eternity.