Since ancient times citizens could run into a church and claim "sanctuary". Remember The Hunchback of Notre Dame? But somehow terrorists now use religious centers as places to shoot fish in a barrel. What happened? Even back in Bronze Age there were rules of engagement and honor. How did we go backwards when we have every creature comfort and information about literally everything at our fingertips?
What's worse is "he-who-shall-not-be-named-in-this-blog" gets fifteen minutes of fame thanks to our Information Age. He's gets to trend on all our social media. His hashtag will beat out #MotherTheresa, #NelsonMandela and #countlesshardworkingfathersof4 for weeks to come.
With the interconnectedness of our new world everything has basically been said about this terrorist attack. So when I blog about these current events I try to capture a new idea. Tonight it is this: let your actions actually give you the outcome you want.
This gunman, as the many before him, failed to get the outcome he was looking for. He wanted to spark a race war according to his roommate Joey Meek. He failed. Epic fail. In fact he improved race relations in my little microcosm.
I watched the bond hearing to research this post. Yes. I fact check. Surprise surprise. At the court proceeding, representatives of the victims families were allowed to speak. The unidentified daughter of victim Ethel Lance said over tears "I think he took something very precious away from me. I will never talk to her ever again. I will never be able to hold her again. But I forgive you," she said. "You hurt me. You hurt a lot of people. May God forgive you," she said. "And I forgive you," she repeated.
I cried when I heard the pain in her voice. I thought she did the bravest thing you can do in that situation. I will remember her, her mother and their family in my prayers tonight. So this lunatic who wanted to start a race war by sucker punching an entire community has this east coast white girl praying for a black family down south that before this Wednesday she didn't even know existed. Epic fail crazy racist.
I found out the name of Ethel Lance's daughter by the way. I told you I fact check. Her name is Nadine Collier. Do you know what she said outside the courtroom? “She’s in a better place now, and we’re all trying to get there. But God knows the Lance family.” And now so do we. I will try to always remember the Lance family. But there is one name that I soon will forget.