Assassination Memories

I remember exactly where I was when I found out JFK had been assassinated. It's a moment frozen in time for me. I remember seeing the assassination of Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King over and over again on TV. I remember the attempt to assassinate George Wallace when he was running for President. I had watched him first hand at the infamous "Stand in the Schoolhouse Door" while I was a student at the University of Alabama. I remember seeing the Kent State Massacre on TV when it happened. I've seen way too many shocking killings over the years, from the Oklahoma bombing to Columbine to 9/11. And now I can add this senseless Tuscon killing spree to my list of horrible memories.

There's no way to justify murder. But I'm also horrified to hear that the Phelps family of religious "zealots" may boycott the funerals of the innocent people who were killed in Tucson. I'm Baptist, and they make me sick. I know there were Old Testament prophets who had unpopular messages from God, but I can't reconcile their perverted sense of purpose with the God of the Bible. The overpowering message of the Bible is that GOD IS LOVE. And there's nothing loving about intruding on the grief of a funeral.