tinpra

I'm sure many, if not most, of you already know about the bombing attack in Oslo, Norway that happened yesterday.

This morning I get online to catch up on everything I missed not being on last night, and see this article about a subsequent attack on a youth camp on a Norwegian island a few hours later.

I'm a wreck. I've spent the last, I don't know, 20 minutes crying and blowing my nose. I worked at a large summer camp for 3 years from the end of HS to the beginning of college, working with little 5-7 year old girls. In the mornings, everyone coming from the city got bussed up to the camp. Counselors were in charge of all the kids, obviously, boys and girls who ranged in age from 4yrs old to about 13. Some of those ppl, adults and kids alike, became some of my absolute favorites. I look back on those years more than fondly. I loved my kids, I loved my fellow counselors, I loved the activity staff, and I had serious crushes on some of the swim staff (hot, golden bods...yum!).

I cannot imagine someone walking into camp and opening fire on us. Except that I kinda can. He could come through the parking lot, go straight into Girls Side and start shooting at the groups hanging out at their tents betw activities, or up to the eating area and get the counselors and the kids on lunch. He could go through the main driveway and shoot the little ones playing in the little playground, or get office staff and parents in the main buildings. If he came through the woods, he'd get the stable staff first and we wouldn't know anything for ages b/c they're furthest out. Or hit Boys Side and the kids on the Field. Horrible. Horrible, horrible, horrible that anyone would want to hurt our kids and our counselors and our staff and our runners (jr. counselors betw 14-16).

And that's what happened in Norway. This guy dressed as a police officer, totally betraying the camp's trust, opened fire on innocent, defenseless people trying to do good things, fun things, with their lives. He claimed to be a Christian Fundamentalist -- God gets no honor out of that. That does not please the heart of God. What part of Christian basics, which is what "fundamentals" means after all, do you get out of bombing a city center and then attacking a nation's children?

Thank God a dear friend of mine just called me to commiserate and has really helped me to feel better in under 10 minutes, but still and all...

Please pray for the survivors, for the families of the victims. I can't imagine being the parent of one of those children, or the husband/wife/child of one of the victims.

Crap. Crying again.

( Texas teen who survived brutal racially tinged attack dies in leap from ship )

my heart is broken as if he were one of my friends that died. in my wanderings around on the net doing research on David and trying to find out how i can, at the very least, send his family a card i've come across reports about a fund set up by/with Bank of America to help pay for his family's funeral costs. i've only seen this in the blogosphere and don't have any "hard" proof, but you can do your own search for the "Galvan Family Trust".