I haven't been able to get out of my mind the image of a young 23 year old woman doing what all of us do when we are blithely forgetting the evil that is out there, scrolling her cell and never considering that she would be dead in a moment. It was probably easy for her to forget the evil. She thought she left it behind when she came, with her family, from war torn Ukraine. But evil in our country, though it is just as horrible, is a bit more disguised, in part by the policies of leaders who are either fools or intend the harm that they cause.
The evil is magnified by our so-called main stream journalists. They so-call themselves. They are complicit in the repetitions of the crimes that occur, that take lives like Iryna Zarutska.
This death we only just found out about--not from the people who posit, lie about, their care for providing unbiased information although it occurred on August 22, 2025. We only found out because of social media--itself an imperfect forum--but to which we are grateful. We now know the truth of that day, of the life and death of Iryna, an execution by a multiple offender with raging mental illness--he a blunt instrument of our society's failed, even insane vision of who it is that is protected and who is not. Iryna was among those of us who are not a consideration in favor of tribalistic destructive agendas. Not "one out of many" but "my truth is better than yours and I got the power". Those individual agendas are no doubt part of whatever is the "divide and conquer" overarching agenda to end any semblance of the founding principles of this country. Iryna was no less a sacrifice than any victim of ancient cultures to which today's self-absorbed, well fed Americans think themselves so superior.
But, there is more, though we knew of this event prior to the one that occurred before it--the shooting of children in a Church on August 28 by another person that was known to be troubled. We are not allowed, it appears, to say "mentally ill", as that gores a societal bull, a shibboleth that is destroying other young lives. The trouble for that tormented soul, who killed Fletcher Merkel and Harper Moyski, was truly intransigent. He was possessed by the Devil. Please don't try to tell me otherwise. I have seen the videos. I have read the words. I saw the picture in which he looks into a mirror and sees the demon. I know. The Devil. So quaint. In our Pelagian world, where despite the obvious death and destruction we continue to cause, humans believe that we can achieve the perfect, the utopia, without any divinity involved. When has that ever been demonstrated? The closest we came is this nation, with the fragile tenets that Franklin warned the difficulty it would be to keep. And every underpinning is being removed, using the language of Constitutionality and Republic by people who do not believe in it one whit. He had the sickness unto death--utter spiritual despair and desolation because he could not find his true self. Who is the true self? The one who has connected himself to God, relates to God, the Creator of us, the creatures. The self of this murderer was demolished long ago, and his own society helped him do it, with a political smile on its communal face.
It's about the guns. Is that so? Take away all the guns from the law abiding. Who will have them? The people who don't care about the stupid agendas of wizened politicians who have been building up their war chests for 40 years in the same seats. They come in with public service salaries. They come out with millions. People notice. But do not ask. We are helping the people they tell you. Which people? Definitely not the three who just died.
Oh, and by the way, Iryna was killed by a pocket knife. Ban all the pocket knives! That's the ticket!
Will anyone vote these destroyers of civilization out? It appears not. And when they vote someone in who, imperfect as he is, does something to try to mitigate, to stem the tide, there are riots to protect the criminals with cries of totalitarianism. Where is the totalitarianism? Look closely. Really look.
What got me today, so that I am writing this? The funeral of Fletcher Merkel. The pastor of Mt. Olivet Church requested no one film, but someone did. There is the casket of an 8 year old boy. Next to it a picture of him with his wild mane of tousled hair. There will be no grown man.
Whose fault is that? I worry that there are a lot of people who look into the mirror and see a demon. Some of them are our leaders. Some of them are smiling at how much an inroad they have made into the destruction of the rest of us.
These are three deaths that have names. Pray for those who have been slaughtered and are anonymous to all but their loved ones.
Pray. Pray. Pray the Rosary. Just pray that God will somehow move these hardened hearts.