Eathquakes have no conscience: People should.

I want to break away from the tragic events and human suffering taking place in Haiti to write about some tragic events and human suffering a lot closer to home. Here in Philly we are used to murders. I am surrounded by killings and killers in both my professional life and my life as a citizen. I could blog about a different murder every day, but I wouldn't have time to blog about anything else.

Sadly, every now and then one of the murders in our city strikes a nerve with me. The murder of Ellen Walton in East Germantown struck struck such a nerve. Here was a woman who dedicated her life to helping others, working as a social worker and volunteering to help food banks and her church in service to her community. A solid citizen and human being who contributed in a positive way to the fabric of this city. Yet some animal [or animals] saw it fit to brutally take her life away from her. The poor woman could not even enjoy her golden years.

"Sometime during the last week, Walton apparently returned to her house on the 6300 block of Magnolia Street, parked her car, and opened her back door to enter through the basement, as she usually did. Police believe she turned the key in the lock, and was then forced inside by an unknown number of people, who beat her to death and ransacked her home. The intruders took two televisions, cash, and possibly some jewelry, and drove away in Walton's Toyota Rav 4.."

"Two televisions, cash, and possibly some jewelry." "Two televisions,cash, and possibly some jewelry." Two televisions....no matter how many times I say it, it's still not making sense to me. When an act of nature destroys hundreds of thousands of lives it's horrific, but it's an act of nature. The elements are not supposed to have a soul or a conscience. When a human being does shit like this-take the life of someone so innocent and defenseless-it makes us all angry.

"Neighbors described Walton as a friendly woman who mostly kept to herself and had a kind smile for everyone. 'I can't even talk about it," said Karen Bruce, a nurse who regularly makes home visits to a house on Walton's block. "It's very upsetting - a tragedy."'

A tragedy indeed.

Of course, here in A-merry-ca, we have had our fair share of those lately. Tragedies are becoming the norm.

Just yesterday, in Virginia, another animal masquerading as a human being killed eight people (Including his wife and son.)

"The shooting occurred around noon Tuesday when Speight shot and killed his wife and son amid a domestic dispute, a vice-chairman of the Appomattox County Board of Supervisors told the Washington Post....Last night, Molnar confirmed to the Daily News that eight people -- including both men and women -- were slain. Their names were not released.
Three bodies were found inside a home in Appomattox County; four were found just outside, Molnar said, who declined to discuss a possible motive for the shooting.
The bloodshed came to light after a 911 caller notified authorities that a man, his eighth man, was lying in the middle of a rural road, mortally wounded."

Wow! Just wow!

And finally, back to the natural tragedy, the one without a conscience. It's nice to see different countries coming together to help the cause in Haiti. (This is what different countries coming together can do. Look what Italy, Ireland, and Jamaica coming together gave us: Alicia Keys!) Cooperation is always a good thing. And I usually never have anything nice to say about the IMF and the World Bank, but I am glad to see that they forgave about 1.2 billion in debts that Haiti owed them. It's just sad that it took a tragedy like this to get them to do the right thing.

Oh well, I won't trip, maybe there is some good in the world after all. It's just that it's so hard to find it sometimes.