ANOTHER DAY

January 17, 2011

A week ago Saturday was just another day. Another catch-up weekend with lovely weather, time to get the chores done and hopefully spend a little time outdoors.

At the end of the day we came home and turned the evening news on.

“Tragedy in Tucson” read the headlines. We were shocked.

For the past week that has been about all there has been on television and the local newspaper the Arizona Star. I’m sure you either read or saw it on your news reporting as well. The congresswoman shot along with six others dead and fourteen more wounded. The congresswoman is at this point recovering in near miraculous fashion. 

The President and Mrs. Obama came and went, special services have been held with more scheduled, and funerals and memorials, prayers and vigils for all. Television people from everywhere reporting on any detail they can find.

And before any real investigations can take place the finger-pointing began. The anti-gun forces against the ‘right to bear arms’ folks, the liberals screaming at the tea party folks and the so-called experts claiming whatever point they back as to why such a horror could take place in this country at all. All much too much.

My husband, a retired Montana judge has seen it all, with a great deal of what appeared in his court being young people who broke the law - and when asked “why?” their standard response was “I don’t know.” Trav said they really didn’t know; it wasn’t a cop out. Sometimes a part of being a youth, with peer pressure and alcohol consumption, was just part of the rites of passage in Big Sky country and just doing what they felt like doing.

The young man who committed the crime will eventually be tried and most probably will never see freedom again. Since the congresswoman was shot and a Federal judge killed the FBI swooped in and took custody. The trial will probably take place in another state since the publicity here and the fact that the judge was well known by all the judges in this state has allowed the judges to recuse themselves and force the trial into another jurisdiction.

The newspaper is chock full of articles, stories, opinion pieces and what-ifs. The facts seem to show the event was planned well in advance and not just a happenstance. The man didn’t just ‘snap’ - he bought a Glock and several magazines and even rented a motel room the night before the attack. He called a taxi to take him to the scene. Details well organized.

Here’s the rub. Now there is an outcry because no one ‘saw it coming.’ The college told him to leave classes and not come back until he had a mental evaluation. He dropped out instead. He hadn’t held a solid job record. He made some strange postings to the social networking sites. He had money unaccounted for. Someone should have done something.

A male friend who mentors young men has been beating himself up all week because he didn’t do something. He didn’t know the man! But someone should have done something.

As a country we have bent over backwards to accommodate everyone’s views. You can be as weird and strange as you like, it’s just fine. Well almost, it is still fair game to pick on Christians unless you are also a conservative member of the Tea Party and they are on the target list too. Fair warning.

We don’t have any reasons. There aren’t any excuses. This is what living in today’s world by today’s standards is. Once we turn our collective backs on living a responsible Christian life we reap the results.

We already have all the laws we need, in fact we would be better off if we enforced the ones we have. Man is not inherently good; if that were true we would not need any laws at all.

This country was founded on Judeao -Christian principals and we continue to push against them as if they never existed. Every time a tragedy happens we drag out the same excuses. It isn’t about gun control. Just maybe it’s about self control.

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