Throughout history we are reminded of how tragic events and occurrences that by nature bring out the most evil in people's hearts, many times also show how good people can truly be. During the Holocaust while Nazi's murdered Jews, others risked their own lives to hide them in their homes. And in World War II, a captain dragged a dead enemies body behind his jeep through the mud, laughing and waving. Only a day later would a soldier be wounded, and his best friend drag him to safety among the whirring of bullets past his own precious head. And the Berlin Wall imprisoned people inside a city, isolated from friends and family and the rest of the world, yet such a love for peace grew from those 28 years of restriction.

The most recent case of the good of humanity sprouting from violent and terrifying actions is a result of the shootings in a high school in Littleton, Colorado just days ago. Two students, armed, entered their school on Adolf Hitler's Birthday, shooting minorities and the baseball team, all who wore hats because they were racist and disliked the athletic department. A young girl studying in the library responded to the killers inquiry of "Who believes in God?" with "I do." and one of them shot her right then. It brings me to tears when I learn of this . . . It seems that people have no respect for the value of human life today.

Then I learn that students who after realizing they could not help their wounded and dying teacher, dug his wallet from his pocket and removed pictures of his wife and daughter, so he could see them before he died. Again I cry. And when I see the effect that something like this has on my own school, a high school and class of living that largely resembles the one in Littleton - visually and internally, I am moved. The black armbands and American flag flying at half mast. People who take the time to sign a poster for these mourning and grieving students - letting them know we are thinking of them, praying for them and feeling their pain. The words of my classmates struggling through sobs as they share with others their deepest heartfelt thoughts on the matter, their reprimand of the two murderers and their imagining if it had been here. If they had lost 20 of their closest friends, seen them shot in the head at their desks.

Words like this evoke vulgar pictures in my mind, yet sometimes that is what one needs to realize how horrible something is - like killing another person. And as I choke back tears in empathy and anger, I am softened by the reality that when even the worst is inflicted upon human hearts and bodies, - love, peace, kindness and caring still find a way to push past the hate and despair and fear to go out of their way to help others in desperate need, to remember others in prayer and think of others in one's heart.

April 22, 1999
Megan, age 16

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