At approximately 1:00 p.m. on December 9th, 23 year old gunman Matthew Murray ended the lives of sisters Stephanie and Rachel Works and seriously wounded their father outside of New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Shortly after killing the Works sisters, Matthew was engaged by security officer Jeanne Assam and was shot several times. He apparently then put a bullet into his own head. Approximately 12 hours earlier this troubled young person killed two and wounded two about 80 miles north at the Arvada Youth Mission.
I did a "Google" search on Colorado church shootings and found 91,800 results. You can be sure I am not writing this to clarify the facts of these two horrible related events of a week and a half ago. Instead, I thought I would take a minute to reflect on what is going on in a world where young people decide to kill as many people as they can in an event that they must surely know will bring about their gruesome death.
One thing we can say for sure is that evil lives. We shake our heads and ask what is happening around us and we find ourselves asking "Why"? We think about the possibilities in our own lives of running headlong into a confusing scenario that includes a lunatic gunman.
So, evil lives. I am not suggesting that we give in. I am not suggesting that we relegate "evil" into a place that exists without challenge. What I am suggesting is that we acknowledge the idea that evil lives on and is not going away. Evil lives. Let's quit hoping that the next evil act will not happen. It will. My question is this: What are you going to do about it? Yes, what are you going to do about it?
Doesn't our whole discussion or thought process take on a different dimension when we allow ourselves to consider that we might be able to take some kind of responsibility and we could impact the problem? In some ways this is hard to consider. Often we find it easy to deflect responsibility to someone else or some other organization. How about not this time? How about this time we don't blame the National Rifle Association? How about this time we don't look to the next Brady Gun Control Bill to be the change that we need?
Don't get me wrong, this is not some kind of Second Amendment rant. Those two groups are just likely suspects as far as where we would like to lay the blame or call for "the solution". Laying blame will not help anyone.
Let's acknowledge together that evil lives. Let's agree that you and me can make a difference and let's get started today. What will you do? How will you get started? I surely cannot answer that for you. I can say with assurance though, if all we do is shake our heads and wonder why, nothing will change for the better. Ever.
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