Dear Editor,
A tragic shooting that took place a week and a half ago justblocks away from where I lived last spring is reverberating with menow. Michael McKinney will not soon be forgotten, not by hisfriends and family and not by the thousands of members of the BallState and Muncie communities to whom McKinney was just anothernameless face until the early-morning events of Nov. 8.
I've heard and read expressions of deep sadness and confusion,anger and incredulity, sympathy and celebration on campus and inthe pages of the Daily News and Star Press since the shooting. Lookaround and listen. Listen to the conversations people are having atthe shuttle bus stops, in the Atrium, in class. People care aboutthis.
Reports lend to me the belief that McKinney's funeral was acelebration of a life lived, and that is great. Now, no one hasbeen unaffected by this tragedy. McKinney's family and friends, hisDelta Chi fraternity brothers, University Police Departmentemployees, members of the Ball State and Muncie communities andevery student on this campus grapples with this to some degree.
Life questions now surface that are far bigger than MichaelMcKinney or you or me. They are questions from within the deepestpart of our being, our souls. It's not a body part you'll discussin anatomy class, but the soul of each person has or will at sometime cry out for answers to the more permanent questions of life:Why does the sudden loss of life happen? Where is God in tragedy,in the midst of stuff like this? Is God aware and involved whenbad, even horrible, things happen to people?
I won't try to offer a trite answer or tired cliché here.They've been regurgitated time and again. You know them. I amsearching for answers myself that I can't understand alone. Oneonline resource, the "Enigmas" link at EveryStudent.com, may helpstudents as they seek answers to life's difficult questions. TheWeb site garners no profit; it simply offers sound,Biblically-based answers to questions about life, questions we allwrestle with at some point.
The tragedy that was the abrupt end of Michael McKinney's lifehas taught us again the truth about life: It is brief and fragile,and it is a gift. We do not know the day or the time at which itwill be extinguished.
Jon Scott
senior
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