By Roslyn Ryan
Editor

I can’t help but wonder if others in Powhatan had the same reaction I did when they first heard about the shooting near Flat Rock last week.

“What a terrible thing,” I thought to myself. “I wonder where those people were from.”

There was something so terribly painful when we realized that both the victims and the perpetrators were from our county. The things we hear about happening in places outside of our borders were happening here. It was happening to us.

I would like to be able to say I knew Tahliek Taliaferro well, but most of what I knew of him came from line scores and post-game interviews, moments of brilliance on the basketball court and celebrations on the sidelines. As the sports editor for this newspaper for the past few years, I would guess I was witness to some of the best—and most disappointing—moments of his short life.

I will never forget watching him during early season football practices, sweating with his teammates in the scorching August heat. It was almost tough to reconcile the ferocious young man mauling the tackling dummy with the sweet kid who once, when asked during a preseason interview what he wanted people to know about him, replied that he was nice and that he was funny.

A whole lot of people already knew that about him of course, including the thousands who came to honor him at Powhatan High School last Monday. Among those joining his relatives were many others who considered Tahliek Taliaferro family: his teachers, his teammates and coaches, and those he’s shared classes with over the years.

There have been many things to be angry about since Tahliek was killed, that much is undeniable. No one should ever be cut down as they stand at the cusp of adulthood. But when such a terrible end comes to someone with so much promise — to a young man who meant so much to so many — it makes it even harder to comprehend.

But, if there were things to be angry about, there were also things to celebrate, or at least to give us all hope.

We can celebrate that a community came together, young and old, black and white, and supported each other through what is surely one of the darkest times we have seen in recent years. For those who did not see the maturity and strength of the young people who came to honor their friend last Monday, I assure you that you would have been proud.

We can also hope that the anguish this has caused our community will teach everyone that there are no nameless, faceless victims of violent crime.

As someone pointed out at a gathering held last week, life is not a game and this is not a TV show; for every person killed by senseless acts such as the one that took Tahliek, there is a family that will never be the same and wounds that will never fully heal.

No matter what he wanted us to think, Tahliek was so much more than just nice, or funny. He was a beloved son, brother, friend, student and teammate. And if his death teaches this community about the need for respect and tolerance, he just may have been part of our salvation as well.