Gary Nelson: Deaths at abortion clinic horrible, both of born and unborn

Re “Who is to blame for the tragedy in Colorado?” (Dec. 1): A deep sadness should fall over the whole country when a mentally deranged man can and does take a gun and shoot nine people at a Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood facility.

There are many things wrongs with this picture, but let me name just a few: First, that anyone would kill innocent people in the name of preserving life, if that is what happened, is patently absurb. There is no explanation for that unless, the perpetrator is insane.

On the other hand, that anyone would fail to see the other human lives that were scheduled to be killed in a legal manner that day, in the very same facility, illustrates the extent to which our society has gone insane.

So we have an ongoing paradox: Killing innocent people that have been born is horrendous, while killing others before they are born is legal and commendable.

The answer, of course, is that neither of these activities are commendable; it is all very sad, and it all points to how entrenched we are in the culture of death. Until we can admit that there is a deep sickness in our country that can’t be fixed by political rhetoric, we all lose.

This story was originally published December 7, 2015 at 3:22 PM with the headline "Gary Nelson: Deaths at abortion clinic horrible, both of born and unborn."