I think that most of us recognized that it was a horrible moment in the lives of many individuals, and certainly in the life of our country. There is something wonderfully healthy and American about watching the end of a marathon race.
The people are cheering and the participants are proud, no matter how far back they are in the line. Everyone is exhilarated! In that beautiful, American moment, some enemy of the human family- a very sick and cruel mind- deliberately set off explosions with one purpose, to kill or hurt as many innocent people as possible.

A second reaction from many, if not all of us, is “Again??” There seems to have been so much of this as of late. When we watch the evening news, we might expect it in Afganastan. We knew how bad it was in Rowanda, or even northern Mexico. But at the Boston Marathon? Or in a first grade classroom? Or at a movie?

Every sane person would like to see our wonderful country get control of the rampant violence present among us. The problem is, we differ sharply on how to do it. I am hopeful that the big divisions between us can somehow be bridged by our common desire for the safety of our citizens. The solution may or may not be better control of guns. Certainly no solution will be effective without better ability to respond to mental and emotional illness in society.

Whatever we do, I know that we must do SOMETHING, and we must begin NOW. Let’s pray to find a solution.

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On June 30th, the New York Times reported that federal investigators stated that the owner of Massey Energy, which is also the owner of the West Virginia mine where 29 men were killed in an explosion last year, misled government inspectors by keeping accounts of hazardous conditions out of social record books where inspectors would see them. The owners kept a dual accounting system regarding safety problems and efforts to fix them were recorded in an internal set of books out of sight of inspectors, the official books that the law required them to keep.

Twenty-nine people are dead because of the company’s greater concern for the bottom line. Two people have been indicted. One is a foreman and the other is director of security. No Massey managers have been charged, including 18 executives who refused to be interviewed for the federal investigation, invoking their Fifth Amendment rights.

This picture shows the top of our Supreme Court building, with the engraved words, “Equal Justice Under Law.” I know that the wheels of justice grind slowly but I hope that they are still grinding.
Let’s pray that they will.

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