There's Something Basically Wrong Here

Praying for her recovery and for JUSTICE!!! Yeah, you got the song right. It is Toby Keith, "Beer for my Horses". It's time we quit giving these creeps free room and board. I hate this stuff!!!

This is just horrible. What are people thinking lately. There is too much hate.

There are no words for this act of violence. What right did they think they had to take these lives and in this manner. Wonder if this is an initiation into some gang. This nation better get a grip. These gangs have to be stopped if that is what this is. I pray noone will ever have to go through something as horrifying again. I think about the parents of the slain youth, what could hurt more?

America,seems to be becoming more wicked all the time...It's a sure sign that Satan is alive and well.

Yes, that's Toby's song you refer to... John Anderson has a song about "it's time to take our country back..." though I can't recall the title just now. There just seems to be no end to the senseless crime and cruelty going on here every day. It goes without saying... prayers for the survivor and the families. Thanks for bringing this item to us, Robert.

Crime and violence have always been there, throughout the long and sordid history of mankind. One difference today is that we have 24 hour media coverage and instant live video of whatever "bleeds and leads". Another difference is that there are so many more people alive in the world today that, even if there were no increase in the rate of incidents, there would still be a marked increase in the total number of incidents.

The common reactions to horrifying events like this is a call for JUSTICE, expressed already in this thread by good hearted and loving people as a call for lynching and an end to free room and board (inference is the death penalty in some form).

Yet, I must ask if this will really be justice and if it really will help address the problem? In Canada we have not had the death penalty for about 40 years and yet our murder rate is much lower than in the US. For example, Toronto which is a city of more than 2.5 million people with a greater metropolitan area of more than 4 million and an extended urban footprint (megalopolis) of about 6.5 million. The city has about 60-65 murders a year. This is down from a high fifteen years ago of about 90 murders a year.

In American cities of similar size the murder rate is always in the high hundreds or low thousands.

And no democracy in the industrialized world executes more of its citizens than the USA.

Capital punishment does not seem to be reducing the incident of murder, even though as often observed it means that these individuals will never do it again.

Perhaps, though, the fact that society itself takes life filters down to the individual who also feels justified in taking lives as well.

While these acts of violence are deplorable and the people who commit them must be taken out of circulation to protect the public, I think the urge to punish is not necessarily equal to a call for justice, true justice.

Let's remember, as horrible as these acts are and as sick and demented as the people who commit them are, they were once infants and innocent too. They are not monsters but human beings who have behaved monstrously. While it may be a fine distinction it is an important one. When we forget it we slide a little further down the road to monstrousness ourselves.

But, yes, let us pray for the complete and swift recovery of the survivor.

This is the type of thing that makes me wonder what the point of life is when there is crazy horrible bad things happening all of the time.

Rory,
You do not line young people up against a cold stone wall and blow their brains out from behind. If you do, at that point, you give up your right to humanity. If your children were the victims, you would agree. You are my friend and you are entitled to your opinion but the parents of these murdered babies tonight hardly care about the murder statistics of Toronto.

Robert, thank you for the link to the article about the murders and the survivor. The
girl obviously was shot because she witnessed the tragedy.

I don't know that lynching would solve the problem. The police think robbery was the motive, but have no leads to the perpetrators. With fuel so high, groceries on the rise and taxes taking more of spendable income, I don't think this is the end of
useless violence in our country. Unemployed youth are going to try to meet their needs in this manner. If things get worse, which I believe they will, many that are
employed may resort to drastic majors to provide for their families.

I don't have an answer for how to stop what seems to have been put in motion now. I know that God has the answers and even the questions. I will pray for the
victims and their families and also for the young survivor, I hope she recovers and
goes on to college to honor her fallen companions.

Cheryl, Of course lynching wouldn't solve the problem but it would make a big big difference in the lives of these criminals' next would-be victims.

oh my gosh.....this is just horrific and terrifying at the same time! I don't know what is going on in this world but this is one of those things you expect to be a dream and then you find out you're wide awake all the time!

Robert: You are correct to observe that the families of those who died in this tragic and senseless crime will not care about crime statistics nor will they be comforted by them. If it were my children I would probably also be filled with grief, rage and a desire for vengeance.

But there is a reason why we don't let the victims of crime be the persecutors of the criminals. This is why criminal trials are always "the people vs. John doe" or "the state of Texas vs. John Doe" or in Canada "the crown vs. John Doe". The crime is seen to be an act against society, not just against the individual victim. Society must seek true justice, not vengeance.

I have heard of and read of cases where the relatives, at times the parents, of the victims have expressed forgiveness to the perpetrator of violent crimes against their family. Forgiveness does not mean they are exonerated of their crime and do not have to pay the price of committing it. But it does mean that the soul of the victim's family no longer needs to carry the burden of that hate and desire for revenge in their hearts anymore. Forgiveness is a powerful tool. A man who helped me to acquire my own understanding of God's will once said to me: "If you kill one of mine and I kill one of yours and you kill one of mine it never ends. If you kill one of mine and I forgive you, its over." It was a message that has remained with me ever since.

Remember, when Christ was condemned to death, tortured, beaten, forced to march with the instrument of his own death on his shoulder, ridiculed, spat upon and then nailed to a cross, his words were: "Forgive them for they know not what they do."

It is hard, very hard, to adhere to such a pure teaching in the face of human acts of horrendous evil. We are not Christ, however much we may want to follow his teachings and emulate him. We are flawed. But it is what we should strive towards.

I respect the revulsion you feel over this brutal act. That is a healthy, normal, human response to it. I also understand how that revulsion, and the fear that someone else might suffer the same fate, inspires a desire to hunt down and eliminate the conscienceless people who committed the crime.

I still maintain that it is not in the best interests of society, nor of the victims, their families or the survivor, to become more like them by ending their lives.

OMG! That's terrible! What the heck has become of our world! My heart goes out to the families of these kids.

Rory, now I know the meaning of 'saving grace'. You have just displayed it. And I appreciate your honesty, were your children the victims. Amen.

Hatred is giving in to the tools of evil. What happens if you let the anger, and hatred rule, and then you find out that it really was not that person you killed after all. Excuse me, my bad, we killed your child in error, so sorry. They should not have looked guilty? Evil has a way of getting by with things anyway. Until God call his children, and Jesus sets up his kingdom on earth, Justice and punishment will always be an imperfect science. Do we sink to the level of satan in trying to stop him? If so, then he has already won.