Neither Rhyme Nor Reason

Sometimes it feels like the world is "going to hell in a hand basket." This is one of those times. It has been a terrible week or so, starting with the Boston Marathon bombings. I think most of us have been emotionally impacted by the horror of what happened, the death, the injuries, the terror. We have also have been moved by the heroism of those who, with little thought to their own safety, rushed to the injured to help any way they could. I suppose we all look for silver linings in the face of the tornado but it is amazing at how often they are there to be found. Among the horror of children killed and having legs blown off there were those who tore clothing to make tourniquets, those who carried the wounded and much more. It was a day to stand up to terror and Boston did. They continue to do so. Brave Boston.

And then there was the terribly wrong-headed vote in the US Senate which failed to overcome the filibuster by the GOP that prevented a vote on expanded background checks for gun purchases. There, in the face of those from Sandy Hook who survived a mass shooting, in the face of Gabrielle Giffords who has fought long and hard to recover from an assassination attempt by a mad gunman the US Senate caved in to the forces of fear - the gun lobby.  The Senate was too afraid of the gun lobby to do the right thing when they should have been emboldened by the presence of the heroes who struggle everyday to overcome the effects of guns on their lives. Rather than see in those faces the human cost of the unregulated gun industry, the industry of death and destruction, they were emboldened only by money. Shame! It was indeed a shameful day on Capitol Hill.

Next there was, of course, the terrible explosion of the fertilizer/pesticide factory in West, Texas. So many people lost in the blink of an eye simply because the state OSHA hadn't seen fit to inspect the plant for DECADES. How many people have to die because of corporate greed and disregard for safety? So much negligence, so much sorrow.

So much death and destruction, so much chaos. So little reason.