In Times of Darkness, We Must Rise Above

I realize this is a blog intended for political commentary, but forgive me for feeling the need to pen a more introspective piece on a day that helped me put things in perspective. I arrived home today after being disconnected from the net and the news all day. At 5:30 p.m I turned on the television and saw the scroll at the bottom of the tv said that a man had just killed 13 people in Binghamton, NY. The killer was a 42 year old man who had just been laid off from IBM. About five minutes later Glenn Beck came on, and with characteristic sincerity and candor, gave his reflection on the tragedy that had just unfolded. He looked straight in the camera and relayed an incredibly personal story. His father left his mother at a young age, and as a result she became addicted to painkillers. Glenn’s mother committed suicide when he was 13, left food in the crock pot and told the kids they would be ok. Eyes glazed, he looked at the camera and said by the age of 30 he was a severe alcoholic who found himself curled up in fetal position in his apartment, not knowing whether he was going to live or die. It was from that point on that he turned his life around, and decided not to follow in his mother’s footsteps, he decided to rise above.

I think every person can attest to at one point or another feeling totally helpless, lost and unable to cope with what life has thrown their way. Since the recession began in December of 2007, 5 million people have lost their jobs. Every where you look people are losing their homes, losing their livelihood, and beginning to lose hope. It’s real, this Depression is real, the struggle and the pain that America is going through really dwarfs whatever political melodrama is being played out in Washington. At the end of the day we are all in this together, whether you are conservative or liberal, this struggle will be shared. I digress back to the point that Glenn Beck made in his candid testimony, it is in the darkest moments in life when we are tested to the point of breaking, that we truly understand not only what we are made of as humans, but what is most important in life. God only knows what was going through this man’s mind when he decided to kill these innocent people, but knowing how many people are out there just like him is a sobering thought. It is tragedies like this that provide a wake-up call in a time of peril. No matter how bad it gets, money, cars, homes, those are just things at the end of the day. I think now more than ever people have to have The willingness to put their lives in a greater context- if you’re Christian- that would be Jesus Christ, but if you’re not whatever you choose to believe; To know that if you lost it all tomorrow- or if you have nothing today, you would not be defined by social stature or your worldly possessions, but the love of your friends, family, and yes God. I think what this country is going through right now is going to be painful, it is going to be a long arduous road, but I think we will make it through better and stronger Americans, we must rise above.