-by Geoff Caldwell-
The Google homepage for Saturday, December 15th 2012 said it perfectly. A small candle under the search box.
If there’s a prayer “inbox” in heaven I have no doubt it is overflowing this morning. So much tragedy, so much innocence lost. At times like these words are very hard to come by. Harder still to assemble into any form of meaning in the wake of such a meaningless act.
I spent months surrounded by the death and destruction of the Joplin tornado, yet I cannot even begin to imagine the scene in those two school rooms in Newtown, Connecticut.
Joplin was a war zone. Horrible, traumatic, yes, but yet on the opposite side of the world compared to what those first responders who entered Sandy Hook Elementary will now carry in their memories for the rest of their lives.
The evil that Adam Lanza unleashed yesterday will never be fully understood, no can it ever be fully prevented. For the sad truth that is never allowed to be discussed any more in a politically correct secular society is that there IS evil in this world. It is real, it is constant, and it is with us each and every day of our existence.
Whether it be in the form of a sniper from a school book depository window, a truck full of fertilizer, or religious radicals with box cutters, evil has been and always will find a way to remind each and every one of us just how mortal we are. How that in just minutes on any given day, it has the power to change the course of history and in those same minutes destroy lives forever.
I will not dignify the likes of Alex Wagner, Piers Morgan, Michael Bloomberg, Thomas Menino, Jerrold Nadler, Ed Schultz, and the rest of the pathetic parasites who immediately used one of the worst tragedies in American history to promote their own ideological political agenda with any more than this:
“If you want to use the Newtown tragedy as a nucleus for further advancing a national discussion of violence in our society, I’m all with you. But if you’re going to just bash the NRA and law-abiding citizens and demand re-writing of the second amendment without one word of discussion over the debasing of our culture during the past 40 years of liberal assault, I’m not only not in, I’ll fight you ever step of the way. In less than half a century, Hollywood and the secular left has taken a basically polite and civil society and turned it into a Godless, anything goes, politically correct insane asylum of violence, mayhem and murder.”
But perhaps the most mis-informed tweet of the day came from none other than Mr. Conservative news, Rupert Murdoch, who very misguidedly tweeted out yesterday evening: “Terrible news today. When will politicians find courage to ban automatic weapons? As in Oz after similar tragedy. “
Rule number 1 in debating gun control: If you don’t even know the difference between semi-automatic (which are legal) and actual automatic (which require a federal license) than perhaps it best to keep your mouth shut before making brash statements for politically correct gains.
I realize that reason finds little place in the events of yesterday and for the days ahead, but before anyone rushes to judgment, perspective should at least get a seat at the table. I don’t remember the exact program nor the professor’s name (I will post the link if I can find) but on NPR yesterday afternoon he was asked about by the reporter about the “rise” in mass killing deaths recently. His answer will surprise. They haven’t risen. It seems that the average in America is around 150 a year for the past 20 to 30 years.
Yes, 150 is 150 far too many, and after the terrible, terrible tragedy in Newtown yesterday we most certainly need a national discussion on violence and mental illness in America, but with 312 million plus spread around this land, 150 does put some much-needed perspective into a very volatile debate.
But this is not a time for numbers and debate, this is a time for empathy and prayer.
Please take time today, in whatever way is your way, to pray for the victims and their families.
May God be with the families, friends and all touched by this terrible, terrible fate.
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