All week we have been bombarded by sickening and heart-breaking reports about the unimaginable and barbaric event on the campus of Virginia Tech University.

Many people are terribly touched by this tragedy.  Millions around the world with no connection to the dead and wounded or the University feel deep sadness and pain.  Such an event leaves few folks unscathed emotionally.

We are now dealing with a mixture of emptiness, disbelief, anger, and loss.  We are trying to deal with a horrendous event that defies description and understanding. 

Evil has visited our country, citizens, and consciousness.  We ask how such a thing could happen.  We ask how it could have been prevented.   We ask, and ask.

Others were unable to ask.  They had to act.  They were the police, medical, and university officials – government employees – who were charged with controlling and responding to the horrible events on Monday, April 16, 2007.

These are the people who protect and educate us.  These are the ones to whom we run for assistance in times of need.  Of course, who could have anticipated the magnitude of our needs that tragic day?  Yet, those in law enforcement put their lives on the line to contain and eliminate the threat of a madman on the loose.  As shots were reported at Norris Hall, they ran to the site to halt the horror.

Unfortunately, their best efforts could not stop the gunman until he turned his weapon on himself and ended the ordeal.  Nevertheless, we must not ignore what these brave and caring workers did.  Often we fail to appreciate the full range of service and duties that members of the executive branch provide. 

We understand about officers writing speeding tickets, but this latest catastrophe reminds us that their jobs entail confronting events that the rest of us would prefer not to confront. 

Police, soldiers, and those in emergency services resemble a baseball team, although they play for far higher stakes.  Players frequently stand around appearing to be doing very little.  Yet, when the ball is struck and play begins, the team must work together and react instantly. 

Government workers in public safety positions do the same thing.   If we are lucky, and we usually are, they sit and observe.  When we are not so blessed, they must risk their lives to save ours.  They act instantly and instinctively.  They do it unflinchingly and repeatedly.

As we process the enormity of this loss to our country and its sense of well-being, we will continue to ask many questions.  Many will turn to their religion.  Some will turn away from it.  One question will not have to be asked.  Where were those employees commissioned to protect us?  They were there.  They were doing their jobs, serving us to the best of their abilities.

As for larger theological questions, they will swirl around us as they always do.  At the convocation at the university the day after the shootings, President Bush quoted from the New Testament book of Romans:  “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” 
(Chapter 12, verse 21)

This hideous event did not prove the absence of God.  It proved the presence of Evil.

Fred Apelquist

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