Opinion : Giffords shooting makes Americans face again the questions raised by evil acts

Speaking to a nation bitterly divided and nearing the end of a bloody, soul-searing Civil War, Abraham Lincoln first took a stand. He cleverly criticized those who supported slavery while praying to God for victory – and then said, “but let us not judge, lest we be judged.” He went on to say he hoped the war would be over soon, while adding that if the war lasted long enough to shed as much blood as the slaves had shed and cost as much as slavery had benefited the American economy, then America would simply have to say, “ "the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether."

Then he said:

“With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.”

Forty-one days later, he was dead, shot in the head by someone who very strongly disagreed with his policies.

Gabriell Giffords, on her Facebook page, wrote that Lincoln’s quote is her favorite. The Congresswoman lived in a state that is bitterly divided over many issues, including immigration and war. It seems likely that the man who pulled the trigger on Saturday was excessively angry about those two issues, and others.

A while ago, I read a quote that said, “Everything happens for a reason.”

After I read those words, I thought: Yes, everything does, indeed happen for a reason. And often that reason is: People are idiots. People are evil. Sometimes, they are both.

There is going to be lots of discussion about the shooting of Representative Gabrielle Giffords. The awful, horrifying and senseless act will have people questioning gun laws, the political climate in our country. Every controversial issue on which Rep. Giffords took a stand will be reviewed, along with every word of the gunman.

We will have discussions about the nature of our political debate, and policies concerning meeting with politicians.

All of these are natural, appropriate reactions to horrors like we saw on the news Saturday.

But there is one simple, stark explanation for the shooting of Rep. Giffords: Some people are idiots. Some people are evil.

We’ve dealt with that kind of evil ever since there’s been an America. And every time we have faced evil, the good people have asked themselves lots of questions about their society, and the evil that is in it, and how to deal with that evil.

That is a natural, appropriate response.

But that does not mean that facing it – or answering the questions that acts like this raise – gets any easier.