We all ache for Colleen Ritzer's family, friends, neighbors, students, and colleagues. We are all asking why did this have to happen--a senseless, cruel death.
The news everyday reports horrible stories about senseless deaths of innocent people, and we are particularly moved when these senseless deaths occur to moms and dads, teachers, children, friends and others close to the perpetrators that kill.
Why?
If I can cull any meaning from this horrid act, it is the fact that we have to build caring, loving communities where we live and where we work. That doesn't mean there won't be disagreement, debate, and utter frustration at times, but it does mean that at the foundation of all we do, and before all else, we have to build communities of love.
I will take Colleen Ritzer's life into mine by working with greater effort to build the kind of community the news demonstrates she was committed to--a child-centered, loving, caring community.
My prayers and thoughts are with her loved ones, and though an evil act, my heart aches for the violator too--why? Why would he throw his life away like that? An act we cannot imagine.
