It's been all over the news. It was almost bound to happen that our kids would see some footage of the shooting in Arizona. So far, Lauren is the only one that has asked anything about it. And today, when she saw some of the footage, I was just amazed at the perception our 3 year old daughter had. It is a lesson well learned.
The news was replaying some footage of the shooting. It showed all the police cars and ambulances at the scene, emergency flashers going strong. Of course, it drew her eye. Then, they showed shooting victims being hurriedly gurneyed away into waiting ambulances. Lauren asked, "Daddy, did something happen? Are they going to the doctor?" I told her yes. She said, "Oh, I hope the doctor makes them all better."
I could not help but smile at those words.
When something so senseless, so tragic, so unexplainable happens like this, the human curiosity in all of us comes out, and on purpose. Us grown-ups live in a normal world, where we go to work, eat our meals, live our lives, raise our families, etc. We have formulated a world norm over the years, and somehow, what happens around us needs to fit in that norm. It helps us cope, keeps us on an even keel. When the unexplainably tragic happens, our world norm has been violated. To try and cope with what has happened, we do our best to wrap our minds around it, to try and fit it, almost force it, into our world norm. Only then can it in any logical way make sense to us. There has to be a rational explanation that we can grasp as to why this has happened.
Unfortunately, while trying to apply logic to the illogical, sometimes we take it too far. Those that immediately and incorrectly jumped to conclusions, falsely blaming Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh, the "hatred" of conservatives, the political divide "caused" by "the right", were 150% wrong. It is one thing to try and find order in the chaos while coping...it is another to falsely accuse well-intentioned Americans that love this country of hate and causing violence without proof. Shame on the liberal pundits and hacks that tried to score political points by falsely exploiting this tragedy.
Rep. Giffords and the other victims were not attacked because they were Democrats...were not attacked because of what someone said....were not attacked because of politics. They were attacked because evil exists. Sometimes, evil rears its head and strikes. It happened to befall them in the form of a lone attacker. And while we may never know the true reasons from his twisted mind, the fault is solely his and should remain there until proven otherwise.
The grown-ups pointing fingers elsewhere could learn a lesson from a beautiful 3 year old girl. Trying to find reason, trying to place blame, trying to answer "why" is misguided right now. Once the victims are cared for and the funerals are held, we can try to answer all of that....just be prepared there may be no other explanation than evil exists, and our world norms were violated because of evil. Period.
For now, we should be focused on one thing. Hoping and praying that the doctors can make the victims all better.
The refreshing honesty and focus of children is so pure at times....and so correct. God bless the Arizona victims.
