Voices Silenced

32 people were silenced yesterday in Blacksburg, Va. Yes, I know the total death count is 33 but let's focus on the 32 first.

32 futures ended and the lives of hundreds of others that were touched by these students and teachers have been altered forever. Our attention should be on the families and friends of those left behind. I don't want to hear how GW was responsible - he wasn-t - or how he had no business at today's memorial - he did - or how the media is descending on the town. Of course they are, we the public want to know as much as we can.

If anyone there isn't focusing on the survivors then I'll be the first to condemn them but I haven't seen anything crass about the coverage or the comments being made. Let's for God's sake leave the bickering until after the funerals at LEAST,

A sick and resentful mind saw enemies. Saw people as lesser or not as real as he. His writings indicated there was some class resentment against those he encountered at VT. Why is it that anyone has to put down or look down on someone else's choices for their lifes? So what if he thought they were pretentious. Why couldn't he just move on and find others that shared his own vision instead of tearing those he disapproved of down? I don't guess we'll ever know.

Someone who wants to die and wants to create havoc as he/she goes will always find a way. We will never, ever be completely safe from this sort of situation but we must, we absolutely must, become more familiar with the signs.

God be with those at Virginia Tech, with the families of those slain and with the students who will fear and grieve for weeks to come.

And God help us to see the signs of people in need that exist all around us.

Pontificating

The Pope made a rather impassioned appeal during his Easter mass for a ceasation of the violence in the middle east. For the first time he acknowledged that the blood shed was serving no purpose except to tear the region apart.

Yet at the same time, he recently sent out new guidelines for European Catholic politicans to follow, telling them basically what they could and couldn't support.

I am Catholic yet I am very uncomfortable with this role the new pope has decided to play in politics. John Paul was much more diplomatic, abet determined, to shape our policial arena. Yet he did it by appealing to the best in us, thinking that by doing so the other would follow.

Not so, Benedict. It's his contention that he has the right and obligation to tell us what we can and can't support.

Nahhhhhhh

There are many more Catholics better than I. I do not hold the pope above man, but see him as simply a man. One that may be better read than I but one who is fallible.

There should be a separation of church and politics in the world. Often the blunt truth of politics does not mesh well with religion. Let religion speak to the soul of man. Allow politics to speak to it's governing.