Bearty and the Beasts

April is the cruelest month. I know that has been said by someone but right off hand I know not who. We've had a little of every thing, weather wise. It has rained softly, stormed furiously, snowed sporadically, thundered noisily, and lightning has streaked across the sky and under my shades into my bed room, but not under my covers! It has been 32 degrees and frosty and 75 degrees and sweaty. (OK by me). I do love weather and like its variations but I am a little tired of being cold and having purple hands.

The flowers are beautiful and the pear trees have shed all of their little white petals across our lawns and now it is time for the dogwoods to show off. The azaleas are ready to compete also and the tulips too. There is so much beauty around us.

The happenings in the world, however; have been ugly, obscene and devastating. A father killing four of his children and himself, a deranged man killing 16 people in a civic center and then himself. (He lived in fear of Obama taking his guns away. ) Three policeman gunned down in California, two ambushed and shot in Indiana, another two or three shot in the north east and another female policewoman shot today. The police are out gunned and the country is shocked by it all. I, for one, am tired of them asking the same question after each incident," Why would someone do that? They must be sick! They must be crazy! How can we anticipate these events and prevent them. "The day before yesterday a man was shot in a strip mall parking lot at 2:30 in the afternoon in the South end of Louisville. Plenty of witnesses observed the crime 'going down' and watched the rented car drive away with the two shooters in it. Drug deal gone bad! Are these guys sick, crazy, could someone anticipate this happening?A letter writer to the editor in today"s paper railed against the anti-gun folks and said, we would all be better off if we were all armed. His theory being that if we were all armed we would be a threat to the others and so they would let us alone and not be so hasty about settling all disputes with gun fire. Now who's crazy? We've got a problem.

There were 50 people killed by six mass murderers just this past week. That doesn't include the single murders that happen every day. I grieve over the young Americans killed each day in Iraq and other war zones but our death toll from gun fire right here in America is worse than the war zone's. Let us pray!