There Ya Go
T“I … love when kids get shot, I love to see kids get torn apart.”
hose words were taken from a “manifesto” of the person responsible for last week’s shooting Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis. I won’t use this person’s name because … why? If it’s recognition or pothumous fame she wants, she won’t get it here.
I know as Christians were taught to forgive, but this is without a doubt one instance where I think we can throw that attribute out of a 30-story window. Forgive? Not until we forget, and that, hopefully, will never happen.
You might not agree with me on that one, and that’s your call. But search your soul and examine the cold and callous nature of this beast. I have no sympathy for this person who mercilessly slaughtered two children, and I won’t forgive him. If that makes me un-Christian, so be it. She shot at helpless kids, ending the young lives of two and injuring 17 others.
In a church. While kids were praying or about to pray.
And then she killed herself. No better way to secure a ticket to hell than that, and apparently, she couldn’t get there fast enough. At least we’re rid of this scab on the back of society.
Hell is exactly where this pathetic excuse of a human being belongs, right next to anyone who shoots up a school. In her journal, she even asked her family to “pray for the victims and their families.”
Chilling. Mass shootings are a contagious rash. We see it all the time after the fact — a shooter professes their admiration for previous beasts; one of them this time was Adam Lanza, fellow scum who perpetrated the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012. These people are very sick, but is that always an acceptable defense?
There’s no denying that mental illness is real and serious.
Very serious. Mental health is one of this nation’s most pressing issues and can never be overlooked or pushed aside. The problem is discovering and treating it. Many times, people get the help they need, but it’s naive to think everyone does.
So where do we draw the line between mental illness and pure evil? What makes a person really snap? And how big is the grain of salt we should use when someone goes too far?
I’m damn sure there are millions of people suffering mentally who do not pack heat, walk to a church and cowardly massacre innocent children through a stained-glass window.
I’m not even going to get into the tired mental illness-too-many-guns debate. I don’t promote taking people’s guns away, because it’s their constitutional right to own as many as they want. I also don’t promote giving people like the 23-yearold shooter — a graduate of the very school she targeted last week — that proverbial grain of salt, because what they do is utterly devastating to families, friends and entire communities that were once a safe haven to victims.
Do we still even have safe havens? A sad effect, among many, from last Wednesday’s incident is that the aftershock either wore off by the weekend for many people, or soon will because we all have busy lives to live and continue to fool ourselves into believing it could never happen to us.
But it shouldn’t ware off. It shouldn’t fade out of our consciousness. It can’t. Would it if, God forbid, it happened here, or even closer to home? I sure hope not.
This, my friends, should be a stain that never comes out.
Ready for 2026?
Another Box Car Days has come and gone, and it’s time again for a shout-out to all the people who pitched in in one way or another to make this year’s four-day celebration one of the best. These people go above and beyond to put on a great show, sacrificing time with family, time at work, or simply time of relaxing at home. If you know one of these volunteers, give them a pat on the back the next time you see them around town. They deserve that, and so much more.
