Making sense of tragic events.

Words cannot describe the emotions that I have been grappling with today. There are days when I love my job. If it is to document a story of hope, recovery, or a good thing happening in the community, I love telling the world about those situations. Other days, like today, I really hate my job. Because I have to relay tragic news to people in a matter of fact fashion, and it isn’t at all easy to do so when the news you are reading is so horrific.

Many know what has transpired, and naturally, people have decided to vent their anger, sadness or frustration out on someone or something in an effort to rationalize it. I really don’t know why people do this. I suppose it’s simple human nature. We believe that by pointing fingers to a situation, we can convince ourselves that that situation is the only reason bad things happen, and if we were to remove the situation, nothing bad could ever happen again.

Let me honestly ask you, when in history has this ever proved to be true?

While I was driving into town today, I heard a report from someone who wondered why these days it seems like stories of mass killing happen. They queried about this by noting that it seems to have been a recent occurrence in this country. I couldn’t help but think about another incident that I read about recently which was just as horrific and heinous.

Many don’t remember the Bath School Disaster. How could we? It happened in 1927, a time before us, and before many of our parents and grandparents. And still, what happened at the Bath Township School in Michigan was equally horrific as what happened in Newton.

Bath school before the bombing

There were three bombings. The bomber, a man by the name of Andrew Kehoe, blew up his home, killing his family, and also blew up a section of the local elementary school where he served as a board member. After blowing up his home, and after the school bombing, which had been timed, Kehoe drove his pickup over to the school and observed emergency crews working on the debris. He called over the superintendent, with whom he’d been fighting with, and when the man came over, Kehoe blew up his truck, killing himself, the superintendent, and several bystanders including children.

After the bombing

In all, 45 people were killed in the bombing, including Kehoe and the superintendent. The rest were children ranging in age from 1^st through 12^th grade. (At that time, children of all grade levels attended the same school).

Memorial plaque at the site of the old school, which is now a memorial park.

This story and its impact are lost to history, mostly because several days later Charles Lindbergh made his famous solo flight.

I guess my overall point is that too often we try to rationalize the irrational. To try to make sense of that which cannot be made clear, and try to look for answers to questions. But in doing so, we find that we are only making excuses for those who have evil in their hearts and malice in their minds. They may have tools by which they commit horrific acts of violence, but ultimately, they alone have made the choice to use them. We cannot look beyond that simple fact.

My hope is that we don’t starting hating each other for who we are. Because doing so leads to incidents such as what happened today. We need to come together, mourn and learn to live with the aftermath. We can never fully protect, nor prevent tragic events. We can only hope, pray, and live to ensure that tomorrow will be a better day.

Pray for those in Newton, Bath, and elsewhere around the world affected by violence.