Evil, raw and unholy

The media, newspapers, Facebook, twitter, and even conversations have been taken over by the atrocities of the shooting in Connecticut- as they should. We should reel in disbelief, in pain, in grief, in so many emotions, as human kind. The loss of life in such a violent way is and should never be made to be acceptable. As all of these text or personal conversations swirl around my head I can't help but listen to the theme of the outcry to God; 'Why did God let this happen?' 'Why didn't God stop this? Isn't God all-powerful?' I recently read a stream from a friend's Facebook account who publicly (and bravely) stated these questions. In many ways, they should be commended as they basically voiced what much of the world is thinking; how could God allow such an atrocity to happen? I suppose that it is arguably human nature for the believing soul in a higher power to automatically question that higher being and ask these almost rhetorical questions. What I question though, in these instantaneous responses, is whether or not our culture and society has predisposed us to this reaction. I do think that emotional responses are worthy of respect. Everyone is entitled to the way they feel but I do raise the question because I have found that in certain singular catastrophic events in other places around the world, the response is quite different. In some circumstances no blame is laid at all; others the questions are far more introspective. Can this be a useful tool to investigate alternative reactions? One of my own personal reactions to the shootings in Newtown was to question myself and what part I had to do with it. I was most certainly not directly involved, nor indirectly, but perhaps on a larger scale I was somehow interconnected into this web of humans hurting other humans. I had to question myself, how often had I been mean or unkind to another person, how often do I judge or criticize another person, or did I even hold the door open for a stranger at the store the other day. I do not know the state of people I interact with on daily basis. Who could tell me before that the person I cut off in traffic was just coming home from a loved-ones funeral? It is questions like these ones which bring myself into this picture of our interconnectedness as humans. Instead of laying blame, how can we call ourselves into accountability? What can we focus our conversations on now?