Elementary School Shooting

12/14/12.

It is another horrible day driven mercilessly into our collective memory. Today Adam Lanza, a 20-year old sociopath, killed his mother and then went to the school where she was a kindergarten teacher and opened fire on teachers and students, killing 27.

It’s hard to process a tragedy of this magnitude. The first emotion I feel is anger. I have to admit, I hold onto that anger. It’s a much easier emotion to deal with that the pure sadness that will follow. I put myself in the shoes of the parents who dropped their children off at school today who will never see them alive again. Such anger, I wish the shooter was still alive so the parents could take their pound of flesh directly from his hide.

I can’t help but try figure out why a person would do something like this. It’s just the way that my mind works. Earlier today I heard an incorrect report that the shooter was a father on a student. I immediately wondered if this was some sort of vengeance for extreme bullying. But that’s not the case. This wasn’t logical. This wasn’t something that makes sense. This person shot his mother and killed her. But this wasn’t enough for him. He followed this up by going to her workplace to kill her students.

I know what I think it was. The fact of the matter is that angels and demons both exist. They aren’t fictional representations of good and evil. They are beings of spirit that drive us and influence us to the extent that we allow it. Was Adam Lanza crazy? Of course he was crazy. What we don’t know is why he was crazy. I suppose that’s a different question for a different day.

For now we have a couple of options. Some of us will cry and mourn and others of us will rage. As for me, I will rage.