Home

Herself speaks.

[edited to update the number of deceased. Lord have mercy.]

I am currently in an airport, awaiting my flight home. I have never felt so desperate a need to be back in my corner of the desert.

My corner: El Paso, Texas.

Two days ago, a gunman drove hours and hours across Texas specifically to cause mayhem for the Hispanic community of El Paso, Texas. Twenty-two dead. Twenty-four injured. (And yet, this terrible attack was not even the only mass shooting within 24 hours. God bless Dayton, Ohio. How do we live like this?)  Our hearts are broken.

News of the dead came painfully slowly -- because of the magnitude of the crime, the bodies of the fallen were left until the scene could be processed. And meanwhile, Facebook posts were shared by local friends: "My Tia is missing." "Brother, I pray you are all right." "We cannot find my boyfriend's mom."  And the more time passed, the more horror-stricken we became, knowing that no news at all was NOT good news.

Because the very worst aspects of tragedies make for the most-often-repeated "news", the reports have focused in particular on a young mother who died shielding her two month old son from the gunman. Only a day later did we learn that the son's father also died, shielding her as she shielded her son. They leave behind two other children as well, ages 3 and 5. Three orphans, who will likely grow up retaining only ephemeral memories of their parents.

I am reminded of the Harry Potter series. Of James in his last moments, shouting to Lily to run and that he will hold off Voldemort to giver her time to escape; of Lily throwing her arms wide and pleading "Not Harry!" before being struck down. Only this time, the deaths are real and tangible, a gaping wound in a safe, peaceful city.

There is Evil in the world, and it is far beyond that of the fictional Dark Lord. There is no Boy Who Lived to save us; only orphaned children, widows and widowers, now-childless parents, all the grieving souls. Plus an ever-increasing feeling of powerlessness in the face of the Horror that brings death to us even as we go about our ordinary business.  Workplaces.  Garlic festivals. Concerts. Local watering holes. Churches. Street corners. Walmart.

Nowhere is safe. No one is safe.

Have mercy.