I Don't Know, But I Still Care

As you probably know, last week a young man wearing black, carrying four guns, opened fire on students at Northern Illinois University. Six are dead. Many more are wounded. Once again, Americans struggle to understand what prompted Stephen Kazmierczak, 27, to snap. Scrambling for answers, the media, as they typically do, turned to the “experts” for their insight. One authority claimed Stephen was “unbalanced” and had stopped taking his medicine . . . another pundit pointed his finger at the role of violent video games in many of these school shootings . . . others made a connection to Virginia Tech, calling the act of violence a copy-cat crime . . . while others speculated this young man must have had pent up anger issues. Why did Stephen go on a rampage?

I don’t know. There are no easy answers.

Why did a 23-year-old nursing student shoot and kill two classmates before killing herself at Louisiana Technical College just one week ago on February 8th?

I don’t know.

Why did a 14-year-old boy shoot a classmate at E.O. Green Junior High School leaving him brain-dead a couple of days ago on February 12th?

I don’t know.

Why are school students of all ages turning to violence to solve their problems?

I don’t know.

But I still care.

I care for the families who’ve lost a loved one, for the students whose lives have been forever impacted by what they witnessed, and for the father who’s son pulled the trigger yesterday. While I can’t answer the “Why?” questions surrounding such events, I care enough to pray for those touched by these acts of violence.

Care to join me?