Last year
there was a sea of flowers in front of the Domkirke. There is talk in the
newspapers that perhaps this will happen again this year, as people seem to be
drawn to the church. It makes sense—that perhaps we seek to be present in
places that offer comfort and understanding, and some kind of sense in the
midst of all that doesn’t make sense. There will be a memorial concert later on
tonight. I am not planning on attending, but many thousands of people are
expected to participate. Perhaps I will watch it on TV.
The priest
at mass this morning spoke about the importance of taking time in our daily
lives to sit in silence and to reflect—to travel into ourselves as he put it—in
order to be challenged by the questions that silence and reflection offer us. It
makes sense to me. We cannot reflect on the things that happen around us and in
our own lives, cannot deal with them adequately, without that solitude and
reflection. Many people are afraid of solitude and time for reflection; such a
needless fear. We learn to know ourselves that way, and that can only be a good
thing.
How sad
that only a few days ago, that Colorado experienced yet again a horrific
shooting rampage in a movie theater, which killed and injured many people. How
is it that this type of weaponry ends up in the hands of those who are
hell-bent on destruction? What do gun-shop owners think when a young man comes
in with a request for these types of automatic weapons? I’m just wondering. I
am tired of hearing the often-repeated expression when these types of tragedies
occur, that ‘guns don’t kill people, people kill people’. It’s not true. Guns
purchased legally by people who have a hate agenda, do kill people, and the automatic
rifles that these murderers use kill many people in a very short time. I have a
problem understanding that these types of guns could at all be used to hunt
animals. God help the animals, is all I can say. And God help us all if we
continue to permit these guns to be sold legally. I know the argument goes that
if such gun sales are made illegal, that young men like Anders Behring Breivik
and James Holmes will get a hold of them anyway. But you know what, maybe they
wouldn’t have--maybe they would have encountered many more obstacles along the
way, and maybe the tragedies could have been prevented. I’m just wondering. And
hoping for change to the guns laws.
