They Kept the Girls

This afternoon when we returned to the hotel room after spending a wonderful day at the MGM park here at Disney World, I logged on to check my e-mail and saw a CNN Breaking News message telling me that a man broke into an Amish school in Lancaster, PA and killed three little girls between the ages of 6 and 13 and then did us the favor of killing himself. When I looked further into the story and watched the handsome police chief tell us what happened I learned the man had let the boys go and only kept the girls.

Wait! Didn't the same thing happen last week in Colorado - where a man went into a high school and let the boys out but kept only girls which he apparently assaulted sexually and then killed one before, again, doing us the favor of killing himself?

What the hell?

Setting aside the horror of the fact that children aren't safe in school anymore - what's the deal with focusing on the girls - in today's case, as young as 6 years old?

I was stunned when I heard today's news - you'd think I'd be used to this by now. In a way I'm thankful I'm not - I don't want to be numb to these aberrations, I want to be outraged. I want everyone to be outraged. When I saw the Colorado Sheriff crying last week as he told us that a young girl had been killed and when the Police Chief today was visibly shaken during his comments to the press - it helped me maintain hope that we are not desensitized to these outrages.

Here in Disney World I am surrounded by children, happy and safe with their parents or other caregivers. That's the way it's supposed to be - children are supposed to be happy and safe - not at the mercy of people who because of real or imagined problems in their life walk into a building and threaten, assault or kill other people's children.

It's just wrong.

And the fact that today's victims are part of the Amish community just makes it more surreal. These are people who have made a conscious choice to live separately in their faith, to keep their children apart in separate schools, partly to keep them safe. While one may not agree with their choices or lifestyle, they are philosophically opposed to violence of any kind under any circumstance - can you imagine what they are feeling right now?

My prayers are with the families...of both the victims and the perpetrators...today's killer left behind three children. What must be going through their minds right now?