Thankfully, We Feel

It’s often been said that good can be found even at the worst of times.  Although the events of yesterday are horrific beyond comprehension, I would like to use this post to speak of hope and offer a reason why we should be encouraged as a people and as a nation.  On what do I base this statement?  Simply put, we still care.

The shooting in Newtown, Ct. that took 26 lives, 20 of them children, caused public grief on a level I have not seen since September 11, 2001.  These are two very different tragedies and I am by no means attempting to compare them, but just as it felt that everyone shared a common sadness then, it feels as though we all share a common sadness now.  With incidents such as these seemingly increasing, you start to wonder whether or not as a society we will become desensitized.  Instead, what I saw was a nation devastated and grief-stricken.  Even though there are certain issues connected to the tragedy that clearly divide us, there was no difference of opinion on how sad what happened was for everyone.

It would be easy to say that of course everyone would feel grief-stricken today, but I maintain that is something not to be taken for granted.  If the time ever comes that we are desensitized, it is then that we will truly be in trouble.  I take solace tonight in the fact that we still care enough to be genuinely sad and feel deeply enough to be passionately angry.  With what feels sometimes truly like a world gone mad, our hope rests in the fact that we still are capable of feeling the emotions we feel, and even with our society sometimes struggling to stay healthy,  as long as we still care, we are not lost.

May God bless the victims of this tragedy and give strength to all those suffering