Today I
awoke like everyone else to hear about another school shooting. This one was in Chardon, Ohio where one
student died and four others were shot by a classmate who opened fire in the school
cafeteria. It has been an all too common
thread in our society – mass shootings at school, in church, at home, and in
the workplace. Mass shootings taking
place to supposedly right some wrong – perceived or real – are happening far
too often.
On Tuesday, April 20, 1999, at Columbine High School in Columbine,
Colorado, 12 students and one teacher were killed by two of their
classmates. Another 21 students were
injured. Watching the chaos was
disturbing and haunting. Today brought
back memories of that day in 1999.
It was a horror to watch then and many talked about
ways to combat the violent responses by teens who are outcasts, from broken
homes, depressed, bullied, into violent gaming, etc. Yet here we stand again in the midst of
another mass shooting. We don’t yet know
all the details but early reports suggest this young man was angry, bullied,
and an outcast. Whatever his reasons for
shooting his fellow classmates – it was not the answer.
The obvious questions will continue to be asked –
where did he get the gun? Was it a legal
purchase? Was it an unsecured gun? What had happened in his life to bring him to
this point? Where was his family? What role could teachers and counselors in
the school have played in preventing this horror? What could other students have done to reach
out to this young man? What made him
target those particular students?
But there are no easy or fast answers.
Right now I pray for the family of the
student killed, for those who were injured and their families, for the alleged
shooter and his family, for those students who escaped injury, for the
community of Chardon, for the teachers and staff of the school, for the parents
who worried about their children, and for God presence in all of this.
I wish I could snap my fingers and end bullying. I wish there was not a way these troubled and
bullied people could get their hands on firearms. I wish these situations would become a tragic
memory of the past never to occur again.
I wish bullying would never end forever.
I wish violence was not seen as an answer to slights and pain. I wish all gun violence would end. I wish for peace in the midst of this chaos
and pain.
Until then – we pray for all of those involved and
for our hurting world. We pray for a faith that sets us free from violence and pain. We pray. Lord, in your
mercy.
