Since I use this blog as a bit of a personal journal, to remember dates and happenings, I should dutifully note that last night was the time four year old Theo pushed two year old Francis off the footstool while brushing teeth, causing said Francis to fall precipitously against the bathtub and open a nasty gash in his chin. Three hours and a Martin/Francis emergency room visit later there were four stitches in the poor guy’s chin. I’ll spare you all a description of the initial mess or the difficulty of holding down a screaming child while the doctor tries to put the stitches in. Everything is fine now. And no, no photos or Youtube videos of the proceedings. Maybe I’ll snap a picture of the stitches so Francis can see just where that scar came from!
Quaker Ranter
A Weekly Newsletter and Blog from Martin Kelley
Tag Archives ⇒ snap
Words and reason fail when faced with such horror
April 17, 2007
It’s hard to know what to say about yesterday’s horrific massacre at Virginia Tech, where a gunman killed 32 people (at latest count) in two separate incidents. Is this an indictment of an American culture of violence? Virginia Tech has a strong military tradition, so is our war mentality to blame? Guns?, can we blame guns? Or how about the alienation of so many young people in our society?
Any answer seems glib and besides the point. This isn’t the time to be a pundit. People snap for all sorts of reasons and usually for multiple reasons that can never really be untangled.
Like all humans, I’m shocked and saddened. I’ve spent time on the campus and the students and faculty I met were always warm and hospitable, gracious and open. What must they be going through? Think of the fear of the trapped students, the fear of parents turning on the news, the fear of survivors who will have to live with the memories of this nightmare for the rest of their lives. I add my humble words to the millions of prayers that have been murmured these last twenty-four hours. May God comfort the victims alive and dead, including the shooter, who must certainly be a victim of something himself.
How do we stop the violence? How do we show our youth that violence is not the way? And how do we get these damned guns out of their hands?
Making the list
January 11, 2007
Well, here’s something: QuakerQuaker made the “SPA 100” list, Snap.com’s top 100 sites using their preview service (this is the hovering preview you see when you pass over a link). They say their list represents “some of the more interesting, notable and funky sites” using Snap Preview. Hmmm, now if only they told us whether they think fell under “interesting,” “notable” or “funky.” For those keeping track, QuakerQuaker now mashes together over a dozen Web 2.0 services to bring you the Quaker conversation.