DENVER-
Invoking the Columbine tragedy, Gov. Bill Ritter asked Coloradans Friday to join a bell-ringing and moment of silence for the Virginia Tech victims.
In the years since the massacre at Columbine High School, residents have come to a better place, Ritter said during a solemn ceremony outside the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception downtown.
“It’s a place of healing, it’s a place of unity, a place of hope because we got there together,” the governor said moments before the cathedral’s bells pealed for one minute. A host of government officials stood solemnly, heads bowed.
First Lady Jeannie Ritter attended a similar ceremony at St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church in Fort Collins.
Afterward, at a speech about mental health issues at Colorado State University, she asked attendees to do something different in honor of the Virginia Tech victims.
Jeannie Ritter suggested they send text messages telling someone they love them or thanking them for their emotional support, her spokesman Tom Wanebo said.
“It’s a mom thing,” she said. “I’ve got two kids in college, and this week especially, I can’t hear from my kids enough.”
Columbine High School was closed Friday, as it had been every April 20 since the 1999 attack in which two students, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, killed 12 classmates and a teacher before killing themselves.
