Quotes from and Commentary by M. Emmett Townsend on "Amish Victims Mourned at Funerals" by Ian Urbina

Quotes from and Commentary by M. Emmett Townsend

 on "Amish Victims Mourned at Funerals"

Original Article By IAN URBINA

Published: October 5, 2006 by the NY Times.

            I almost couldn't breathe, the shock of realizing such pain being felt by the parents and family.  Especially I feel for the parents, because I have three children of my own in the same age ranges as these Amish angels.  My world, as such would crumble, I may continue to live but it would be a half life masked pain in order to try to live on for my other children and my wife . . . But I wouldn't be truly living . 

"The first of three services began at 9 a.m., for Naomi Rose Ebersol, 7, who was laid in a simple pine coffin at her home."

            I will not list all the names here, but will let Naomi Rose Ebersol represent them all for us here.  Seven years old, my son is seven, I can't even pretend to imagine him being gone without tears welling up, this is 9/11 all again for me in so many ways.  While not such a real world shaking even because murder and death visit people every day in the world, but the Amish, who have asked very little of our society and given so much, if nothing else they teach us about dedication to ones belief.  Their world is shattered, and I hope not irreparably so.  I do suspect there will be some who lose faith . . .  some of the children will grow up not trusting anyone, especially men not of the community.  Others will have such rage, they wont know what to do…

Naomi Rose Ebersol, I remember you and your friends . . . I hope you know of and even feel the hugs and love and comfort all loving kind parents and adults would give you if they could.  I love you, for the child you represent, and with that love I shall strive to be ever more patient with my children and ever more diligent protecting any children from evil. I am sorry you were not able to say good by to your loved ones, but they love you and know you are safe.

What is safe now for our children, even the one room schoolhouse of Little House On The Prairie fame has been invaded, tarnished left broken like a child's writing slate cracked and shattered agenst the rocks.

"A hymn was read in 16th-century German, but there was no singing. The girls were laid in simple pine coffins and dressed in homemade white dresses, symbolizing purity. The bodies were embalmed but without makeup." 

Purity is simple, it is like abstaining, you just say no to abstain and you do the same to temptations to stay pure . . . What must it be like to be pure, all of us were at one point, but do we truly remember being that free of guilt, how free that must have been.

'"Unless you become like these little children, you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven," the pastor said during one of the sermons, emphasizing the need to regain the purity and innocence lost by the incident if the faithful hopes to enter heaven, according to the Mennonite pastor.'

This is a different purity they mention, this is the purity that is taken from an innocent when it is exposed to evil or immorality for the first time.  When I was being trained as a Missionary (Pre 9/11), we were cautioned that some people will look to you as their confessor, let them state the sin, but do not let them describe the details. (Most of the Missionaries were 19 years of age.)   And some will have gone through hellish things; let them share the "what" so you can understand enough to be able to be a help, but stop them from describing the how, in detail. Imagine being a young man from a faithful Christian family raised in a small town having seen some things on the TV etc but living a basically harm free life, this young man is teaching the Gospel and runs across a young woman who was raped and the issue comes up because she feels dirty and unforgivable… imagine if she in her rush of emotions and pain describes the whole experience to this young man . . . His purity of innocence would be gone, he may be strong enough to still be himself and not be shaken, but even then his viewpoint of the world is forever changed . . . Sometimes it is good for our view to be changed but that is an example of a negative paradigm shift. As was the Amish communities, even if they do all the religious right things and live on teaching the truth that they have, they are forever in a world where someone trusted comes in and kills their children, even their symbols of innocence.

There are so many issues brought up by this situation, some I haven't written on such as school safety issues, mental illness (and yes pedophilia is a mental illness, even if un-acted out it can become damaging to the person with it), there is the societal view or "what did we as the village do to cause this?", and the almost incomprehensible reality of will this school be able to reopen?

            Angels were among us, and a devil took them away . . . that doesn't sit well with me, I am sad, angry, motivated and yet emasculated of the power to do anything meaningful for the families or the children.

            Please, let's begin this discussion again here, let us seek peace, or comfort and find a way to go on without keeping our kids home from school and arming our land like a military base.

 Click for the rest of the article 

Thank you for spending the time with me to think on these things and to remember the children. Emmett

© Sept 6, 2006 by M. Emmett Townsend

PS: Original article parts quoted are in "double or single' quotes, all rest is my original content.