Today’s date is August 26, 2015.
A date that will live in infamy, perhaps on a microcosmic
basis compared to the original date, and macrocosmic occurrence which our
beloved president once referred to. But for a small, rural town in Virginia,
that which happened today was inestimably sad and thoroughly unacceptable, and
forever unforgettable.
Alison Parker, a local television reporter, and Adam
Ward, her cameraman, were involved in an out of doors interview today with the
local Chamber of Commerce chairwoman when the unimaginable happened.
It seems a disgruntled former employee approached the
trio, and proceeded to gun them down on live television. As the camera dropped
to the ground, along with its operator, Mr. Ward, Alison struggled to run; only
to succumb to the perpetrator. (The third party, though badly wounded,
is expected to live).
The gunman, whose name I choose to omit, was later
pulled over by police, but died by his own hand before an arrest could be made.
As often as I hear of such violent crimes occurring in
our midst, and around the world, and so often to the kindest, most deserving
young adults, well, I simply cannot understand what Providence found in me that
I have been given the opportunity to live out a long, and (I hope) productive
life on the earth. I will never understand the loss of the good and worthy, their potential to remain unrealized; stolen from us at the whim of an individual less worthy than they, themselves.
There’s a poignant scene in the movie, “Saving Private
Ryan,” in which a dying captain, who has in effect, sacrificed his life for a
young soldier, summons the young man, and in his last throes of life whispers
to the young private.
“Earn it. Earn it.”
In a subsequent scene the elderly Private Ryan, along
with his family, approaches Captain Miller’s Normandy gravesite, kneels, with
tears running down his cheeks, and with trembling lips asks his wife the
proverbial question.
“Have I been a good man?” (or, in essence, “Have I
earned it?”)
To which his wife offers him gentle affirmation.
When I see precious, young, promising lives like Alison
and Adam paradoxically and unnecessarily depart this world prematurely, I never
cease to ask myself the same question as the elderly soldier asked that day.
“Have I earned it?”
I think I am too close to the matter to properly
answer that question. I like to think the very fact that I am sensitive enough
to ask the question will, ultimately, be found to be in my favor.
God bless those two dear souls who went on to their
reward today. May He take them up in His strong arms, and may they find rest
from their labors.
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