Beauty from pain

During the past few weeks I’ve become really jaded with politics and society in general.  

With next year comes a presidential election and the mudslinging between candidates has already begun. I don’t know what it is about an election that seems to bring out the heartlessness in people.  

Then I see a video of people cheering for the number of executions in Texas under Rick Perry; meanwhile, Georgia executes Troy Davis a man who is more likely innocent than guilty. All this left me banging my head against the wall wanting to give up on the hope of people having any goodness in them at all. Needless to say, at the beginning of this week, I was feeling pretty cynical.  

But yesterday I read a USA Today article that did what I thought was impossible - restored a little bit of my hope in the “human spirit.”  The article is titled “Mother cares for her son’s Amish victims,” and if you haven’t read it, you should.  

Most of you probably remember the shooting that occurred a few years ago at an Amish school in Pennsylvania. 

Charles Carl Roberts IV opened fire on 10 Amish schoolgirls; five were killed, five seriously injured. It was a shocking event.  

No one could understand why someone would attack the Amish who are arguably the most peaceful group in the country, especially the parents of the shooter.  

Chuck Roberts, his father, had run an “Amish taxi” before the shooting. He would drive people to destination that were too far for a horse and buggy to travel.  

He had no idea that his son harbored such dark feelings and wondered how he and his wife could ever face their Amish neighbors after such a horrific event. 

But what happened soon after these shootings is beautiful. An Amish man named Henry who lives near the Roberts came to their home to comfort the grieving family. He assured them that the community still loved them.  

A few months later Chuck and his wife Terri began visiting the victims’ families, and Terri began to invite the surviving girls over to their home for picnics. 

She even helps take care of the most injured of the surviving girls who was paralyzed because of the shooting. The young girl cannot walk, talk or eat, but Terri still sits by her, reads her books, sings to her, and even helps the parents bathe her. 

I write all of this because odds are a lot of you feel just as jaded as I often do.  

We need more of these stories.  Wouldn’t it be nice if instead of cheering executions and vengeance, we could get excited about people who can put past aggressions behind them and move forward in peace and forgiveness?  

We can get so wrapped up in being angry about something that we forget that often beauty comes from the most heinous situations.  This school shooting was terrible, and there’s no excuse for it.  But, for once, it’s nice to see people respond in love instead of hate.  

The parents of Charles Roberts and the Amish community have and will continue to heal as a result of their response to such an unthinkable crime.  

It’s about time the rest of us followed in suit. 

Megan Massey is a junior religious studies major from Mount Olive.  Follow her on Twitter @megan_massey.