Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Sometimes this world really confounds...

I don't know where to begin. The shootings at the Virginia Tech campus just plain boggles my mind. That a person could kill 32 other people, with apparently little or no emotion or remorse, and then put the gun to his own head makes me believe in the existence of evil as something tangible in this world. To think that a mere human could do such a thing without being possessed by something black and horrible from outside of himself is hard for me. I think of the innocent kid that this person once was, and I wonder what could have brought him to this end. It is both easier and, in some ways, less scary to be able to assign ultimate blame for this horrible event to some outside agency which is both malevolent and self-aware. I would much rather have actual demons and a devil to contend with rather than something random and impersonal. At least with demons, one has some sort of a chance. At least if there was an absolute evil out there, the converse, an absolute good, would also have to exist. And that means we at least have a fighting chance. For things like the VT rampage to happen "just because" leaves us impotent and without any chance to alter events. That I can't accept.

My heart goes out to those left behind; parents, siblings, grandparents, other family, loves and friends. I grieve for all those promising lives cut short and for those who, although older, still had so much to offer this world. And I feel a sort of grief for the young man who did this atrocity, but I feel more grief for the innocent child he once was, and for the promise and hope that was snuffed out by his own hand.

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