Why...

    How do you explain evil to an extremely sensitive ten year old girl?  This is a girl who cried for three days when a dog died....not our dog, her Aunts dog.  A girl, who when seeing those commercials for adopting a child in a third world country, brings you her piggy bank.  A girl who prays for her teachers father, a girl that she knew in her 3rd class, and all the hungry in the world every night. 
    Earlier this year, Savannah wrote a report on 9-11.  I had to approve her research sources because some of the images are quite graphic.  From what she saw...she was devastated.  She continued to ask questions long after that report was turned in.  She knew how many people were killed at each location.  She knew about the first responders and how they risked (and lost) their lives for strangers...what the victims looked like and many of their names,  where all the planes came from and where they were headed.  She knew the type of planes, and how much fuel was on each one. She knew about the Islamic Extremists, and their views on America. This information didn't come from me.  I still have trouble speaking about it...she researched on her own.  With all her research, she was never able to answer the one question she needed answered.  Why?
     And for all the information out there....no one has truly answered that question.  Not to her satisfaction...nor to mine. 
    Then came the children.  Savannah was crying, not just weeping, but sobbing.   Not because she was afraid, but she felt a personal connection with these innocent kids.  They were just babies.  She, once again, could not understand.  I couldn't help her with that either.  I looked at Cameron and I saw all those other seven year old children, their mothers, their fathers, and I couldn't wrap my head around it.  We cried together.  Savannah explained to me that her heart felt broken...and that she was having trouble breathing.  I could relate.  I was having the same feelings.  And once again, Savannah learned all she could about this tragedy.  I couldn't even talk about it without crying, and had to ask her to stop with the questions. But unlike 9-11, when Savannah wasn't born yet, this had occurred in her lifetime.  It haunted her.  She couldn't stop.  And yet, she still could not answer her one real question.  Why?  We can blame it on the lack of mental health...we can blame it on gun laws, we can blame it on the family...but that doesn't answer the one big question..None of those answers are good enough.
    Why? 
    And now...three killed in Boston.  Over 140 injured.  One of the dead, an eight year old boy.  She knew about this before I did.  She told me there were two bombs...and they don't know if the person is from this country or some other county.  Once again, I see her starting her research.  Once again, my child cried. 

What happened to the innocence of childhood.  I know other generations had their share of tragedies, but this isn't an abstract danger that kids can digest and easily store away.   It didn't involve our military, isn't in some country hundreds of miles away...it isn't an attack on the adult world of government.   They did not have an "agenda" or part of some whacked out cult.  These people, these children, these mothers, fathers, sons and daughters were us. 
    I need to be able to answer my daughter.  So, here is the question, again...Why?