I didn't have a good answer in the interview with Tom Colley when he asked me how I felt about some stories I had written that had received national attention about corruption at Virginia Tech.
Those stories were written while I was working for the local paper in Montgomery County, Virginia. Tom Colley was the executive editor of the Daily Telegraph in Bluefield, West Virginia. He had asked if I wanted to work for the Telegraph and I had come up to Bluefield for the interview.
Since this was the first time I had met Tom Colley, I did not know he was good friends with Lew Spence, who was the publisher of the News Messenger when the stories were published.
As publisher of the News Messenger, Lew Spence knew not only about the stories that had been published but also about those that weren't. I kept him informed about everything I had uncovered. At some point in the process, Lew Spence said I needed a top level source to confirm the allegations my other sources were making.
It took awhile, but I eventually was able to contact this high level source. I laid out all that I knew about the criminal activities at Tech involving the administration, municipal governments, law enforcement agencies, church leaders, business leaders, most of the pillars of the community.
After spilling everything, I waited breathlessly for a reply. I was partially hoping the source would tell me my imagination had gotten the better of me. Most of the people involved in the criminal activities were people I had known since childhood. I had gone to high school with their children. I liked most of them. Some of them I admired.
"Son, you don't know the half of it," was the reply from the source.
Chills went up and down my spine. I got lightheaded and after thanking my source, hung up the phone and put my head down on my desk. My youthful arrogance and ignorance had led me to a place where angels feared to tread. I felt like Charles Marlow in Heart of Darkness.
When Tom Colley asked how I felt, how could I tell him this? I had just met him. I didn't know that he already knew Darkness. Mine, his own.
In the darkness of Tom's multi-media home entertainment center sanctuary (Tom was way ahead of his time in this regard), where I spent a lot of time after I was promoted to city editor at the Telegraph, Tom would gently ask me probing questions. I was always unable to respond.
When Tom would realize that this wasn't the night I was going to talk about what was tormenting me, he would get up and put Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition on the reel-to-reel player.
We would both sit there in the darkness, listening, as the music calmed our souls.
After leaving the Telegraph, I had a variety of jobs, ending up in seminary where I met my future wife. By 2006, I was married, living in central New Jersey, and had written a book about ethics, justice and divine justice.
Then on April 16, 2007, my sister called me about the shootings at Virginia Tech. The Darkness, long buried, had exploded. Although horrified, shocked and saddened, I was not surprised.
Then I realized how Tom Colley had protected me from the Darkness those three years I spent in Bluefield. I wanted to thank him in person. I can't do that now. I can only tell others how much it meant to me.
Thank you, Tom. May the Light shine on you and those you love.
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