How many more times must we shed tears when a quiet afternoon is interrupted by the most horrifying images of death and mayhem visiting a place where innocents gather?
Once again, a community’s heart has been shattered, this time at Umpqua Community College in Oregon, the sort of rustic place that isn’t supposed to be marred by such violent acts.
A college is supposed to be a place of refuge or safety.
We don’t know why this happened, but the deaths of at least 10 people in Oregon remind us that tragedy can strike at any moment.
As a nation, we’ve been through this painful drill of sadness, empathy and anger far too many times. “Mother” Emanuel, Virginia Tech, Columbine, Sandy Hook, and even Fort Hood.
The fact that all of us can identify mass shootings so easily signals just how prevalent these random acts of violence have become.
And that’s why we shed tears again and again and again.
We don’t care to know this shooter’s name, and frankly we wish his evil actions would not be rewarded or dignified with the perverse attention that such gunmen crave.
Instead, it is essential to offer comfort to those whose loss of family and friends cannot be restored.
Former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, herself a victim of a deranged gunman, said it well in a tweet: A community’s heart has been tested but will not be broken.
We must not allow ourselves to be prisoners to such events, as these otherwise anonymous perpetrators would want us to be.
It is the way they deal with the shortcomings in their life; stealing the lives of their victims while emotionally and spiritually wounding the rest of us.
It is sad that events like these leave us numb and devoid of words to adequately convey our sorrow and anger.
And as these mass shootings mount, there is a part of us that says it could have been worse.
Yes, it could, but that is scant comfort because one is too many.
Mass shootings have become an American cancer, taking lives violently as it metastasizes throughout the nation.
The threat ended quickly in Oregon, but not quickly enough.
Our hearts and thoughts go out to those who can never again see the faces or hear the laughs of those dear to them. We can’t comprehend what drives someone to shatter so many lives so callously in just a few moments.
But we stand resolute with the families and hope that this American nightmare eventually will be put to rest.
— The Dallas Morning News
