I'd Light a Candle...

If I were as Catholic as I probably should be, I would walk into a church today and I would light a candle. I would light a candle for the people involved in the senseless massacre in Arizona yesterday and I would pray that some time soon, the world could just make sense.

I would light a candle for the Congresswoman that was shot in the head, an attempted assassination from a man that took his politics way too far. I would light her candle and I would pray that God watches over her recovery. But, then I would move on. Sadly, you enter in the world of politics with some awareness of the danger you are opening yourself up to. You know that there will be opposition from extremes (no matter what side you are on) and you know that security and caution will be regular parts of your world. Be they Presidents, Senators, or Congress.... you make a choice to enter into that world fully knowing that sadly, you will receive death threats, and some day someone might follow through. It is a tragic commentary on our world, but it is a fact.

I would move on and I would light a candle and pray for the 9 year old little girl that died yesterday. A girl so young that she didn't even have time to choose a side in the political drama that caused her to die. A child who disappeared from this planet because some man was so driven by his politics that not only did he need to take out his opposition, he didn't even care who else went out, too. Is that what our country has become? We have transformed our country's leadership debate from an intellectual conversation into a physical fight, and we don't even look to see who or what is caught in the middle. The people who walk into the cross hairs when you might be targeting someone else.... I would light a candle for the little girl whose name I should never have known. But thanks to an act of evil, I do. I'd light a candle for Christina Taylor Green, whose life was cut short by a mad man with a gun.

I would also light a candle for the souls of the people that I blame for this occurrence. I would light a candle for the diseased man who pulled the trigger and pray that some day he understands the pain that he has inflicted. I would pray that he realize that his only success in this horror was pain. The government in all of its flaws and opposing views will continue, but the families of his innocent victims will be effected forever. Then, I would light a second candle for the people of power and influence that fed into this man's decision. I would pray that THEY understand the pain that THEY caused by pushing debate into destruction, and by changing voices into violence. I pray that they some day realize that there are better ways to effect change than to incite rage. I would pray for those people. I know who they are, and they do, too. I would pray that God has mercy on their souls, because no one who now knows the name of little Christina Green should.