For all of you yet to hear the news: this morning at Virginia Tech a gunman killed 21 and wounded 21 students and teachers. He opened fire in a dorm and then in a classroom building. The details are still yet to be released, but there a lot of people out there who need prayers today.
My reaction:
I am so disgusted with society today. All I read about in the newspapers day after day is about the trauma children are facing in Iraq - some children not speaking over a year now in response to what they've witnessed - then here in the U.S. the man who opened fire in an Amish school, a nurse charged with over 25 counts of murder that took place throughout his medical career, because he liked the “high” of calling a Code, the five children who died in a house fire set by an arsonist, a little girl kidnapped and raped and then stuffed in a trash bag to be buried alive. Or something even less traumatic, but equally evil, as being called a racist name, not being hired because the individual doesn't fall in the ethnic requirements of a company, women selling themselves to make a living, a kid being bullied or shunned by peers b/c s/he can't afford to buy the name brand labels, girls starving themselves to look "beautiful".... I realize that there are horrible things happening all over the world and this won't ever stop, but yet with events happening like today it makes me throw up my hands and scream ENOUGH ALREADY!!!! Where has the decency, respect, or LOVE of anyone gone?? What makes a person like today open fire on innocent students? It just doesn't make sense.
What's sad is incidents like today makes me SCARED to think about what could happen here in South Bend or at home. What if it was my sister, boyfriend, friend, or teacher who was killed today? Somebody could just walk right up to anybody with a gun and take their life, and devastate the lives of so many others indirectly. My boyfriend was in LaFortune when a girl received a call on her cell letting her know a friend of hers was dead - the ND student had just transferred from Virginia Tech this semester... It can hit closer to home than we think. These tragedies can happen anywhere and I feel like there are few ways to protect myself. I know I can't live my life in fear but still... it makes me think, when will I be next? Or just why is this happening? I want to know!
What makes a person think they have the RIGHT to take away somebody else's life? I'm sure there are multiple factors that contribute to all of this: lack of parental supervision or lack of respected parental or authoritative figures in their life, easy access to drugs and guns, the desensitization that occurs through violent movies and video games, intolerance of other religions, lifestyles, or beliefs, the belief that a person has a RIGHT to do whatever they want (even take a person's life because of X reason), increasing divorce rates, lack of education, peer pressure, bullying, unrealistic demands and expectations in the workplace or at home, selfishness, decreasing available jobs, the cycle of poverty..... Like I said, I'm sure there are TONS of reasons, and it's horribly sad to think that this won't be resolved. Yet, I say won't, because I think a resolution CAN be found. And how can this be resolved? LOVE. This may sound incredibly clique, but if one thinks through any realistic situation that could lead a person to gun down 21 students I can guarantee there is a lack of love, if not within the murderer, then within his life.
Sigh, then again, people have such a distorted view of love these days… and I'm certainly no saying I have love all figured out either! It's a life long process. I don’t know what else to say at the moment, but here are some quotes from Mother Teresa on love:
“I have found the paradox, that if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love.”
“I want you to be concerned about your next door neighbor. Do you know your next door neighbor?”
“If you can't feed a hundred people, then feed just one.”
“If you judge people, you have no time to love them.”
“In this life we cannot do great things. We can only do small things with great love.”
“Intense love does not measure, it just gives.”
“It is easy to love the people far away. It is not always easy to love those close to us. It is easier to give a cup of rice to relieve hunger than to relieve the loneliness and pain of someone unloved in our own home. Bring love into your home for this is where our love for each other must start.”
“Jesus said love one another. He didn't say love the whole world.”
“Love begins at home, and it is not how much we do... but how much love we put in that action.”
“Love begins by taking care of the closest ones - the ones at home.”
So for what it’s worth…. share a little love today. Please. And please pray for the killer, his victims, and those effected in some way by this tradegy. Thanks. -Sara