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Queen sympathizes with VT massacre victims

Queen Elizabeth II is photographed by the crowd at the State Capitol Building in Richmond, Virginia, on Thursday. The queen's visit is part of Virginia's celebration of the 400th anniversary of Jamestown, the US' first permanent English settlement. PHOTO: AP

Queen Elizabeth II began her first visit to the US in 16 years with a message of sympathy and sorrow for the victims of last month's massacre at Virginia Tech.

"My heart goes out to the students, friends and families of those killed and to the many others who have been affected, some of whom I shall be meeting shortly," she said on Thursday in a speech to the state General Assembly in Virginia, where she had come for the commemoration of Jamestown's 400th anniversary. "On behalf of the people of the United Kingdom, I extend my deepest sympathies at this time of such grief and sorrow."

The queen then met for several minutes with students and faculty from Virginia Tech, including three who were wounded in the April 16 shooting rampage that killed 33.

Katelyn Carney, who had been shot in the hand, presented the queen with a bracelet embedded with 32 polished stones -- one for each person slain, minus the shooter -- in the school's colors, maroon and orange. Virginia Tech president Charles Steger also presented the queen with a school pin.

The queen's six-day US tour also will include a two-day visit with US President George W. Bush in Washington and a visit to the Kentucky Derby horse race, which she has long wished to see in person. The Jamestown celebration was yesterday.

The queen praised the cultural changes that have occurred since she last visited the US' first permanent English settlement 50 years ago. At that time, it was an all-white affair in a still-segregated state.

"Over the course of my reign and certainly since I first visited Jamestown in 1957, my country has become a much more diverse society, just as the commonwealth of Virginia and the whole United States of America have also undergone a major social change," the queen said in her speech.

"The melting pot metaphor captures one of the great strengths of your country and is an inspiration to others around the world as we face the continuing social challenges ahead," she said.

Virginia Governor Timothy Kaine said the message could not be more timely or appropriate.

"This is a moment that brings Virginia together," he said before the queen's arrival.

Hundreds of people stood in lines for hours in a cool drizzle, some since dawn, to enter the grounds of the freshly refurbished 219-year-old Capitol.

"How often do you get to see the reigning monarch much less in your own town?" said Keith Gary, the first spectator through the gates when they opened more than four hours before the mid-afternoon arrival of the queen and Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh.

The queen's speech to Virginia's General Assembly was the first address ever by the British monarch to the lawmaking body chartered by the crown in 1619 at Jamestown as the Colonial House of Burgesses.

Inside the Capitol, she met 100-year-old Oliver Hill, a civil rights attorney whose litigation helped bring about the 1954 US Supreme Court decision outlawing racial segregation in public schools.

Such a meeting when the queen visited Jamestown for its 350th anniversary in 1957 was impossible in a state that was in official defiance of federal desegregation orders.

"We didn't tell everybody's story, we didn't include everyone, we didn't honor all the accomplishments. We didn't acknowledge that the progress came at a cost and there was huge pain along the way," Kaine said. "This time, we have a chance to really get it right."
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