Good Triumphs Every Time

After last night's rant, I feel like I should take a step back and do a second post.

I was angry and upset last night, and all I could see was the bad. That's what most of us did, and that's what brings people down so much. We see something bad happen, and we see all the evil in the world. We see how twisted and sick and cruel is this world we live in.

But go rewatch the videos from last night. Not just the ones I posted, but all the ones you watched too, because if you're like me, you watched dozens of them. Go back and watch, and instead of watching the explosion and looking at the people bleeding on the ground, look at all the people running towards the explosion.

First responders were on scene immediately. No one knew if a second bomb was in place, or if anyone was going to follow up their bombs with gunfire or anything else. The two bombs were seconds apart, and when you watch videos of the first explosion, you can see people helping even before the second one goes off. And even after finding out there are more bombs, they don't stop, they keep going, keep helping. It's beautiful.

There is tremendous beauty in the midst of all the disaster.

God is so good. He never let's the devil make a move without responding with a better one.

"Look for the helpers. You'll always find people who are helping."

Sandy Hook school shooting?

• A teacher, Victoria Soto, hid her students in a closet and sacrificed her life for her students.
• The principal, Dawn Hochsprung, gave up her life in an attempt to stop the gunman and protect her colleagues.
• The school psychologist, Mary Scherlach, was also shot in this same attempt.
• Another teacher in that meeting, who's name was never released, pushed the door shut because there was no lock, so the gunman couldn't get in. She was shot through the door.
• One of the custodians, unnamed, risked his own life by running down the hallways, warning everyone to lock up and protect the children.
• A little six year old boy, Aden Licata, grabbed several of his friends and ran out the door trying to get to safety. A mother who happened to be at the school picking up her children early, saw Aden and his friends. She took them with her and they all went to the police station to wait.
• Another teacher, Kaitlin Roig, took her students to the bathroom, locked the door, and pushed a bookcase in front of the door to protect her students. She kept telling her students that she loved them, so the gunshots wouldn't be the last thing they heard.
• One of the kids hiding in the bathroom told Ms. Roig and his fellow classmates that he knew karate and would protect them.
• Abby Clements, also a teacher, opened the door to her classroom and quickly pulled in students from the hallway.
• The music teacher, Maryrose Kristopik, locked all her students into closets with instruments in front of them. She then stood by the doors, holding on the handles not to let the shooter in. 
• The librarian, Maryann Jacob, led the children to safety by crawling, and then gave them papers and crayons to keep them busy and calm.

I make a point to try and remember these names, and I intentionally try my best to forget the gunman's name. It is not worthy of recognition.

Yesterday's bombing? Yes, somebody, or even a group of people, hurt these people by setting off two bombs and having 2 others planted. 176 injured and 3 dead by the last count I saw. But there is a light in these numbers, because the good still outweigh the bad.

• People were in the hospital within 10 minutes of the first explosion.
• Allan Panter, a doctor who was just waiting for his wife to finish the race, jumped right in to start helping victims, treating them as well as possible on the spot.
• An unidentified event volunteer helped a 78 year old marathoner get up seconds after the explosion.
• All off-duty Boston police came in to help with the tragedy.
• The racers who weren't hurt kept running, and they kept running all the way to the hospital to donate blood.
• In the few hours after the attack, so much blood around the country was donated that the Red Cross issued a statement saying to schedule blood donations for a later day, because they had all the blood they needed.
• Even after the statement, people still kept piling in to donate blood, so the Red Cross started setting up future appointments for all the people queued up outside their centers.
• You can see people run towards the explosion site in the videos and start tearing away at the fences and rushing to help the injured, undeterred by the pools of blood surrounding them.
• One unidentified man took off his belt and made a tourniquet to stop the bleeding of one legless individual. After making sure that individual was okay, or as okay as one could be in that situation, he turned around to help others.
• Dozens of marathoners took off their shirts to work as tourniquets  as well.
• Men carried other men, women, and children away from the scene. 
• Joe Andruzzi, former Patriots player, was one of the ones carrying away victims. His three brothers were also responders at the 9/11 bombings.
• Volunteers wheeled a countless number of victims away from the scene.
• Two soldiers who had just finished the race ran straight into the explosion.
• Carlos Arredondo, a peace activist, helped a legless man onto a wheelchair and pinched his artery all the way to the ambulance to prevent blood loss.
• Countless people opened up their homes to anyone who needed a place to stay after the attacks, as two hotels shut down as precautions. A Google document was started with numerous people offering places to stay or rides for others affected by the tragedy.
• People also offered clothes, meals, and showers.
• Restaurants around the area started offering up free meals and places to stay for those affected by the explosions of the day.
• The owner of El Pelon Taqueria was one of these, offering up free wifi, cold drinks, outlets to charge phones, and a place to stay if they didn't want to be alone. He honors his workers for not going home when they could, and those workers who were not scheduled came in to help. They also insisted that people only pay for their meals if they could.
• Make Shift Boston, an office space, opened up it's doors to the public for water, phones, and internet.
• Oleana, a restaurant, offered warm meals to those in need.
• Several airlines, including Southwest Airlines, waived their fees for changing flights for the runners and attendees.
• HopeMob, a crowdsourcing funding website, offered financial assistance to family members of victims in need of airfare. 

After everything is all said and done, I won't try to to remember the names of the people who caused this tragedy, but I will remember the amazing love and support that poured out from all over the country and beyond. That's what I want to remember. That's the light in the darkness. That is God's Hand in the tragedy. Even in the ultimate darkness, when Christ was crucified and darkness overwhelmed the earth, brought about the ultimate light, resurrection and eternal life. Because the darkness of night has to come before the light of the morning.

For every one twisted person on this planet, we have thousands more that are willing to work hard to help to undo the damage.

Because at the end of the day, good triumphs evil every time.