If We Despair, Let’s Together Think About These Three

Yet another hate-filled rage brings mass murder, this time to the west.

Despair envelops us, choking us from every direction.

Even a cursory scroll through any social media platform tells the tale.

Politics now feel broken beyond repair. The economy seems to have come off the rails. The international order has clearly become both disordered and dangerous.

And a narcissistic breath throughout the age fuels – accelerates, actually – our race to the bottom (which, in and of itself, doesn’t appear to as big a deal as does snapping that last-second selfie just before the crash and burn).

Unease has indeed yielded to despair.

Yet, there are moments in time, snapshots of humanity, that remind us that what we see, what we feel, doesn’t necessarily set the course for the end of our story. That we needn’t be afraid.

Let not your heart be troubled.

Individuals still make a difference. For us and in the lives of others.

Here are just three to keep in mind from today’s news. Three who put others above self. And in so doing, have dramatically changed a corner of their world, and beyond.

Chris Mintz: the 10-year army vet who was shot in the back, abdomen, and hands as he attempted to save several fellow students during the Oregon massacre yesterday. His aunt, Sheila Brown, told NBC News (as reported in the New York Post) that “he did heroic things to protect some people.” It’s reported that he charged at the shooter. God only knows how many lives he saved yesterday.

Ryan Rollinger: An assistant principal at Harrisburg (South Dakota) High School, tackled and subdued a student who had just shot and wounded the school’s principal. It was reported that Rollinger “ran toward the sound of the gun.” Thanks to his quick and selfless actions, no students were injured.

Alek Skarlatos: the Oregon National Guardsman who was one of three men, last August, helped to stop an armed terrorist aboard a French train. A certain massacre was thwarted. Ironically, he is a former student at Umpqua Community College, the place of yesterday’s shootings and what brings him back in the news today.

Of course, we’re not all called to be heroes.

Thank God that we aren’t.

But perhaps we can let these three remind us that we always have within us some capacity to do all that we can, with what we’ve been given, from exactly where we are.

We, each of us, can still make a difference if we but our exercise will to try.

So let’s try.

Peace

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons