Encase you didn't know, 26 people were murdered by a lone gunman in an elementary school not too far from my house. The nation is pretty disturbed by the news.
I have a problem with the way people are responding to this. Evil finally rears it's head and what do we do? We cry, and collect donations, and pray for the souls of the kids who are already dead. What are we thinking? all those things are important but honestly when evil shows itself the answer isn't too cry about it, the answer is to get rid of it. Everyone who has felt their heart ache for the families of those slain shouldn't go cry for an hour until they feel better. They should fall to their knees and in prayer search themselves to know whether any of the evil which showed itself in Newtown resides in them as well. Teachers should seek to teach more than just information but teach character so that the students they produce will be like the third grader who told his teacher during the evacuation, "don't worry I know Karate I'll lead the class outside" Parents, in addition to "hugging their kids close" should learn to love them and discipline them to keep them far from evil.
It seems an imbalance exists between things that are of secondary importance and things that are of primary important. Secondary level priorities are, tributes to those who are already dead, trying to convince ourselves that those who died are in heaven, (wherever and whatever place these news anchors believe heaven actually is I have no idea) passing legislation to ensure such acts don't happen again. Primary priorities are taking responsibility as parents for our kids, as siblings for our siblings and as teachers for our students to ensure that we are being influences who fight evil wherever we see it. Evil reared it's head in Newtown but it's poison is everywhere and being the sort of person who seeks out the evil first in themselves than in the people and situations around them should be the top level priorities.
It's frustrating for me to hear people say, "we don't have all the answers but we do have each other" or something similar to that. Now I'm not frustrated because the statement isn't true, I'm frustrated because people take that statement and use it as an excuse for circumstances in which they do have answers but the answers are too hard to deal with. The answer to evil is not gun laws, or mental illness treatments or greater security at schools. The answer to evil is every man searching himself for the evil that resides within. It's amazing how most sane people have no conception of what goes on beneath the surface of their own mind or soul. Until each individual takes it upon himself to know himself and the nature of humanity, evil will have the upper hand because evil has complete control over the areas within you which you don't seek to understand. I suppose this is getting off topic and I don't fault President Obama or Governor Malloy, for the speeches they had to give, I fault the common citizen all throughout this great country who will feel bad but do nothing, who will donate money but refuse to offer actual help. Evil is like a vast army destroying everything in its path. It comes, devours a land and departs. The people left in it's wake, rather than try to build an army and stop the evil will just rebuild, go back to life as normal and try to forget that evil is still a vast army pillaging the land. What we need is people who do more than rebuild we need to go out, find evil and destroy it as ruthlessly as it killed 26 people in Newtown.
Don't worry about things you can't fix. Most of us can't change the facts that 26 people were murdered and that their families are now broken and a whole community is shocked. What we can change is our own reaction to evil and how we will defend ourselves when it comes knocking. Rather than crying or feeling depressed next time we remember the deaths of small children, let them be catalysts for us to do the right. Remember that the same evil which killed those children is the same evil that makes you self centered and proud, it's the same evil that makes you lazy and makes you argue with your parents or spouse. We can honor the dead and strike at their killer through the systematic extermination of evil in our own lives. Is it terrible 26 people were shot? yes! absolutely. However I think it's more terrible that 26 people were shot, thousands of dollars can be spent on community events, speeches will be made and hardly anyone will give thought to the finding and eliminating the killer as far as it is in their power to do so.
You can tell by the repetition and incoherence of this post that I didn't plan this out, it's just been an outflow of my frustration as I've watched the news and such.