Thursday, May 3, 2007

Tell me, for whom should I weep?

Tell me, for whom should I weep?

On April 16, 2007, thirty-two people were murdered at Virginia Tech. I use the term
"people" instead of "students" purposely. There were old and young, male and female as well different ethic groups. We the people were shocked and sickened. Our president ordered flags to be flown at half-mast and made a trip to the campus to speak on behalf of the American people.

There is no doubt that this was a tragedy. But, I am a little confused: for whom should I weep? Someone needs to find out how many of the slain were "libs", "neocons", Evangelical Christians, pro-abortion, pro-choice, etc. so that I will be certain to mourn appropriately.  Someone should also print the same statistics for the victims of September 11th, so I would have a clear picture of those worthy of my tears.

The hypocrisy in this country is astounding to me. Flags at half-mast for those shot at a university by one person, but not for anyone serving this country in Iraq or Afghanistan?  The president sees it as his duty to represent us on a college campus, but has not attended a single funeral for a single one of our troops? In addition, the first thing I heard from the media after the shooting was about the second amendment. No mention of the fifth or sixth commandment (depending upon your religion), "thou shall not kill."

We live in a new America, which is based on hate and revenge. We are at each other's throats if we disagree on politics or religion, or we are afraid to talk about either out of fear of retribution. We are no longer united. The killer at Virginia Tech as well as the killers in so many senseless crimes were taking revenge on bullies, among other things, and we wonder why this keeps happening to our children, but don't we love and support bullies?  We support the bullies running this country and our churches, don't we? We don't teach our children to stand up to bullies, but to be bullies, by our words and deeds, by our media and churches and leaders. Don't we also teach revenge?

So tell me, for whom should I weep?

Jesus wept. John 11:35

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