The recent shooting at the Amish school in Nickle Creek is such a sad event. It made me think of William Butler Yeats' poem, "The Second Coming."
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
Although the Amish community cares for its own, there are ways to reach out and show compassion, both to the Amish victims and to the family that the shooter left behind.
These two funds are available for the Amish families:
The Nickel Mines Children's Fund
c/o Coatesville Savings Bank
Paradise, PA 17562
The Nickel Mines School Victims Fund
c/o HomeTowne Heritage Bank
P.O. Box 337
Strasburg, PA 17579
The next fund is for the family of the shooter. I'm certain that their distress and need must be immense.
Roberts Family Fund
Coatesville Savings Bank
1082 Georgetown Rd.
Paradise, PA 17562
And finally, the Mennonite Disaster Service and Mennonite Central Committee also provide emotional, physical, and financial support to those in need. You may visit their website at http://www.mcc.org/news/news/2006/2006-10-03_support.html.
I will continue to pray that the families affected by this tragedy be comforted by the peace that passes understanding.
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