Torn Apart by Violence!

The mass shooting in Colorado at a movie theater is simply horrible! It is grotesque! It is the ultimate act of both violence and cowardice! It is sheer thuggery!  It is blatant, overt hatred!  It is despicable!

You see, no words exist to properly describe the horror and carnage poured out on the patrons of that theater!  No words can describe the lifetime scars that survivors will feel. No words can describe the senseless loss of life to parents, children, brothers, sisters, grandparents, aunts and uncles, and friends of those who died!

Today, there will be ESSENTIAL and NEEDED critical incident debriefing available for scores of people impacted.  First responders, fire, and police will be reeling from the carnage they have had to wade through! 

And then, the whole second round of victimization and exploitation will begin! The news media, in this political season, will try and hope to find that this person who did the shooting was a conservative so they can smear republicans with the shooting. Many conservative writers and some in the media will try to pin it on a liberal wacko!  The gun lobbies, both pro and anti gun control, will try to use the tragedy to advance their cause.  Some politicians will start fund-raising off the tragedy!  It will turn into a dark exploitation that rivals the shooting itself in ugliness!

Everyone will be asking "why?"  If the shooter (s) were to give a precise reason for their act of violence, would it really make any difference?  The fact is, we live in an increasingly violent society that does not revere and value life!  Life has become cheap to killers, no matter the stated reason for their actions. We live in a society where the breakdown of morality is coming home to roost.  The lack of parental love and discipline, the lack of strong respect for life, the lack of a strong moral center, the derision expressed towards God - all these have unraveled the fabric of mutual respect and love! 

As our moral and social pillars have been falling, we are now in danger of a total collapse in society. You can only remove so many supporting pillars from a structure before it falls!   I'm not trying to be doom and gloom - but we must be truthful about our circumstances.  We have more killings on a daily basis in Chicago than we do Afghanistan!

Pray for these many families! The horror of this will be a life-altering event for the rest of the lives of those who survived and for those who lost their loved ones.   God help America!