Good and Bad in This World

Sometimes this world can be a very sad place.  It has always been like this.  It goes all the way back to the beginning of time.  Look at the brothers Cane and Abel.  It is sometimes hard to find the good and beauty in the world when so much bad is staring us in the face. 

Yesterday a man gunned down 20 children and 7 adults and then took his own life.  Also yesterday, a man in China stabbed 22 children.  That is something that no sane person can wrap their minds around.  It goes against everything that we are made of.  Like the rest of the world, I am saddened, heartbroken and absolutely sick about this horrible, tragic thing that happened. 

When someone is mentally disturbed, there is no way of knowing what they are capable of.  No one wants to believe the worst in a person, even those that aren't in their right minds.  It is the natural thing to want to find something good in all people.  The reality is, there are some people that are broken.  It isn't their fault, it is just how they are.  They have a genetic problem that is not fixable.  Then there are those that are just pure evil.  They allowed Satan into their lives and let him take over.  Charles Manson is an example of evil. 

The thing that makes me so mad about it all is so many people use this kind of tragedy as way of getting their political agenda moving.  What happened yesterday was horrifying and tragic and one of the saddest things that has ever happened.  This is NOT a gun control issue.  It IS a mental health issue.  ANYTHING can be made into a weapon.  Unfortunately, children and adults are killed every day by a parent's or spouse's hand, in car accidents, DUI's, not wearing seatbelts in a car.  What about the guy who mows down a crowd of people with his vehicle or the mom who was driving around drunk with her kids in the car and crashes.  Or the teenager who is killed by a drunk driver.  The woman who ran her husband over because he didn't believe in the same politics as her.  We don't try to outlaw cars or alcohol.  China isn't trying to outlaw knives.  That man in China wasn't able to get his hands on a gun, so he used what he could access...a knife.  It has nothing to do with the weapon, but everything to do with the person using the weapon. 

I saw a post from a woman who said if there were stricter gun laws this wouldn't have happened and if it was our family members or children, we would feel the same way.  First of all, he had the guns illegally.  He was only 20 years old (he had to be 21 to possess a gun) and they weren't his guns.  He wasn't allowed to have the guns and yet, he found a way to get them.  Second of all, I do know what it's like to lose someone to a gun.  My husband took his own life using a gun.  However, I am strong enough to know that it if he didn't have a gun, he would have found a different way.  It had nothing to do with the gun and everything to do with his mental health issues.  He was suffering. 

We should be focusing on mental health instead of gun control.  There are a lot of people in this world who need help.  We could be turning the energy and money being thrown into stricter gun laws to finding a way to provide mental health help to those that need it and help for the families of those with mental health issues. 

Of course we can all try to imagine what the parents and family members of those killed are going through.  We can try to understand their extreme sadness, shock, horror and outrage.  We can try to imagine what the survivors are going through and the nightmares they are all having.  How the parents and family members of the survivors are hugging their children tighter and not wanting to let go.  I ask though, can we imagine what the father and brother of the man who did this are going through?  The horror and extreme sadness they must be feeling knowing someone they love did this terrible thing?  That maybe if they SOMEHOW were able to help him, it would have prevented this tragedy?  I'm not saying they needed to do more for him.  We don't know their family situation.  We don't know what all they did to try and help this man.  I know they are thinking that. 

And what about the dispatchers, 911 operators, police officers, firefighters, emt's, doctors and nurses that worked this incident?  Are we remembering them too? 

Out of tragedy, good shines through.  It doesn't matter what Satan does, the good will ALWAYS prevail.  We are seeing acts of heroism.  Even heroism in the smallest of people.  A kindergartner who was leaving his classroom while a man is shooting his teacher and classmates, but stopped and waited until his friends left with him.  Once again this country has come together in prayer.  We have once again turned to God for understanding and peace.

I ask you to not only pray for those in mourning for the victims and for the survivors, but for those in mourning for the suspect as well.  He was a son, a brother, a boyfriend and a friend.  Whether he understood it or not, he was loved.  Pray for those that had to take the calls and who had to respond to this horrific scene.  They need them just as much.