The Peace Of The Easter Weekend Disturbed By Terrible Stories Involving Children

Easter weekend deserves to be a time of great peace and hope. But this weekend has been an unsettling one with some very disturbing stories involving children.

In Portland, Oregon a day care was shot up in what was likely gang related violence and a four year old child was wounded by a stray bullet. It is alarming when gangs battle with one another over turf or drug distribution territory and their violent battles spill over to affect children.

In Aruba, the public was reminded of the disappearance of 18 year old high school student, Natalie Holloway, as an arrest was made. How a student trip could end with a young student disappearing, and an arrest made which strongly suggests wrongdoing that led to her disappearance is deeply disturbing.

In Milwaukie, two young boys who were a subject of great concern for the nation apparently turned up to have drowned in some sort of tragic accident. This great heartbreak to the nation that prayed for the safe return of these boys who merely went to the park to play and never returned.

In Oklahoma, by far the most disturbing involving a child was the apparent murder of a 10 year old girl in a case in which she was lured to the apartment of a 26 year old suspec who according to police evidence beat her on the head with a meat cutting board, then suffocated her in an attempt to rape, mutilate, and eat the suspect. Meat tenderizer, canabalism evidence, or other deeply disturbing evidence of a former fast food worker and grocery store employee who sought to abuse a child sexually and to eat her to apparently satisfy a distubed psycho-sexual problem that he had. It is amazing that someone so dark and disturbed was able to move into the apartment building and no one knew what a seriously disturbed personality lurked in their own building.

What should be a weekend of peaceful rejoicing in the resurrection of Christ has been shaken by disturbing tales of violence or accidents involving children. This weekend has had more disturbing tales than any that I can recall in recent memory. Compared to soothing message of world peace embraced by the Pope this weekend, the news this weekend was extremely unsettling.