Three Young Men

A tragedy happened here on Monday.

A simple statement of fact wrapped up in six small words, and yet, those words will never be able to adequately express how large and how deep this tragedy really is.

Three young men lost their lives.  Three young men, who should be thinking of the cute girl in the next row of desks.  Three young men who should be worrying about who to ask to the Homecoming Dance.  Three young men who should be daydreaming about making that perfect block in the the football game, or catching the pass that wins the game, or intercepting the pass from the other team and running it back for a touchdown.  Three young men who will never have the chance to do any of those things any more.

There are holes in the hearts of people tonight that will never be able to heal completely.  I am not sure if the scab will even be able to grow over the wound.  Oh sure there will come a time in the future when tears will not come when the thought of these three young men come unbidden, but the sadness will be just as great.  The families will know the pain longer than any who knew them.  Their friends will recover and move through the world and think of them from time to time and their hearts will heal.  The hearts of the parents never will.

Three young men are struggling tonight because of decisions that they made on Monday.  There will no shortage of "if onlys" said to each other and to themselves.  There will never be enough "if onlys" to truly explain what happened. Sadly there will be never enough to assuage the guilt of the survivor.  That will always and forever be there.  That is the second tragedy.  For those three young men will know that they survived while their friends did not and will either allow that to destroy their lives, or it will make them stronger in ways that cannot be foreseen.

Just as the rock that is thrown in the still pool, the ripples of this tragedy will spread and be felt by others at a far distant locations and times through out this world for years to come.  I can only hope that affect will be for the good.

As for now all I can say is Rest in Peace young men and know you were loved.


Until next time..............................