What's Wrong With People?

The population of the United States will hit the 300 million mark sometime this month. Thankfully, we are not at all alike. Sadly, the least among us make the most noise. Whether it is petulant football players, whining celebrities, corrupt politicians or just a random nut-case who decides that his life is best lived when acting out in the theater of life.

The details are still coming as fast as the bullets, but the short version is this (from Yahoo News):

NICKEL MINES, Pa. - A milk-truck driver carrying three guns and a childhood grudge stormed a one-room Amish schoolhouse Monday, sent the boys and adults outside, barricaded the doors with two-by-fours, and then opened fire on a dozen girls, killing three people before committing suicide.

At least seven other victims were critically wounded, authorities said.

It was the nation's third deadly school shooting in less than a week, and it sent shock waves through Lancaster County's bucolic Amish country, a picturesque landscape of horse-drawn buggies, green pastures and neat-as-a-pin farms, where violent crime is virtually nonexistent.

Most of the victims had been shot execution-style at point-blank range after being lined up along the chalkboard, their feet bound with wire and plastic ties, authorities said. Two young students were killed, along with a female teacher's aide who was slightly older than the students, state police Commissioner Jeffrey B. Miller said.

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The good news is that he committed suicide, but the view here is that he could have done that first and saved a lot of people a lot of agony.

Mostly, though, it makes me question the foundation of religion and what is left of my own faith. Why would a loving God allow something like this to happen to these, of all people? Or, is it the delicate balancing act that God plays with each of our lives? Random nut-cases were created by Him too, and I suppose they are permitted to act like nut-cases if need be, but what's the point?

And we shouldn't rule out the role of evil, which, if you follow politics at all, has been at work for longer than I care to remember.

In the end, I suppose it's just another of those circumstances of life that makes us wonder and ask "why", when in fact, we aren't supposed to know and probably shouldn't even be asking.

Now, I need to hurry and think of something irreverent and funny, because all this reality is wearing me thin.