Shooting at Northern

I know everybody else is going to talk about it. I've only just now heard about it.

I know that there's going to be - once again - a lot of blame going around. The warning signs. The loneliness. The registered or unregistered weapons. The barely-veiled threats (assuming there were some). The fact that it's Valentines Day and he was probably romantically shunned. The university security not being at first-guard to ward these types of attacks off.

And the fact that I work in an academic setting (albeit a much smaller one, with security and cops and metal detectors all over the place) doesn't help, because I'm not a student or parent of a student at one of these schools now. I can't imagine what on-campus college students across the nation are feeling. I can only begin to grasp what their parents are feeling.

Some people need a lot of love. Pray for the victims. All of them. But also, pray for the preyers, for those outcasts. Not that they're the real victims. But the hurting needs to cease and they need to be loved and counseled and nurtured. America needs to love the least and greatest amongst us, not just the innocent. Not just the cute and cuddly. But the would-be monsters. The would-be Trench-coat Mafiosos.

This was something King and Jesus understood. People hate out of fear and alienation. Perfect love casts out all fear. Love joins people. Love the mess (and pain, frustration, self-loathing, hate) out of each other. That's bold Valentine's Day love.