...because words mean something

“Maybe it's a sin not to send someone to heaven.” -- Florida state Senator Nancy Argenziano.

Supporters of euthanasia argued for the legality and morality of killing someone on the floor of the US House of Representatives Sunday, invoking religious phrases and emotional wording to rationalize the intentional taking of another human life.

The next day in Minnesota, a troubled high schooler, whose father had committed suicide and mother was laying in a coma due to a traffic accident, took them at their word. He grabbed a gun, killed his grandparents, then headed to school.

At school he killed a guard near the medal detector, then entered a classroom and began systematically “sending people to heaven” as Nancy Argenziano puts it. He asked one boy “Do you believe in God?” when the boy replied that he did, the shooter killed him.

By the time police had arrive he'd killed a teacher and five students, that's in addition to his grandparents and the guard at the door of the school. He also had injured at least 14 more, two of which died later at the hospital. In an exchange of gun fire with police, the boy eventually took his own life.

I wonder if Nancy is happy that her words were able to sway someone.

Posted by Danny Carlton at March 22, 2005 08:56 AM