Shocking is an understatement. The evil act perpetuated by Josh Powell the father who hacked his young sons to death, before ending his own miserable self in a well planned explosion, belies description. How can anyone so brutally murder his own flesh and blood, that too when he knows that they do not have the physical strength to prevent what was happening to them. No wonder the people are angry, very angry indeed.

Why are the people so fuming mad that they are willing to raise $5000 dollars to buy the plots around the children’s grave to ensure that Powell is not interred there? What is it that drives them to such passionate zeal that makes them give willingly of their time, effort and money? That is because they are good people and good people care about what happens around them. They care about their world very deeply and get upset and hurt, when people do not measure up to the standards expected of them. They feel that a part of them has been desecrated and by allowing even the dead body of such a vile person to be buried there, they will be violating the purity and sanctity of their hallowed land.

If we want a sense of just how terrible the crimes were, here’s something to try: imagine yourself in the shoes of the children. Picture yourself as the children, watching with fear, as their ‘beloved’ father raised the hatched over their heads. Picture Powell’s eyes, as burning coals of fury and the helpless children cowering and pleading for mercy. Their sense of betrayal, the loss of trust – conjure up the scene in our minds and you will realize the senseless viciousness of it all.

  

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What is truly amazing is that even Officers from the County Sheriff’s Office and from the Crime Stoppers unit, both law enforcing agencies, for whom murders and other crimes must be routine affairs are putting their hands in their pockets, to buy the plots around the children’s graves. Proof enough that they are not willing to accept what happened and perhaps there way of telling the children, we are sorry we couldn’t save you, in life we couldn’t keep the rotten fellow away from you, but in death we will –  wherever you are may you find peace and happiness.

It is a perhaps a measure of our civility and humanity that even in death, we do not want the murderer to rest next to his children?  It is as if we fear that he can cause them more harm? That his mere presence will foul and pollute the sanctity of the sacred earth that bears the mortal remains of Braden and Charlie?

It’s impossible to forgive and even harder to forget. It will be difficult not to feel revulsion and disgust at the cruelty, the brutality and the viciousness of it all. Sorry, neither can we forgive, nor can we forget…… throw him into the ocean, feed him to the dogs, but these sanctified grounds are out of bounds, he’s not needed here.