Amazing

I can think of no other community of people in the world who would show this sort of compassion for someone who had so recently brought such evil and malice into their midst. This man attacked their school and murdered their daughters, and they take the time to mourn his death. I’ve never seen the Amish as much more than a curiosity, but I now stand in awe of them.

CNN.com – Amish mourn gunman who killed 5 girls – Oct 7, 2006

Dozens of Amish neighbors gathered Saturday to mourn the quiet milkman who killed five of their young girls and wounded five more in a brief, unfathomable rampage.

Charles Carl Roberts IV, 32, was buried in his wife’s family plot behind a small Methodist church, a few miles from the one-room schoolhouse he stormed Monday.

His wife, Marie, and their three small children looked on as Roberts was buried beside the pink, heart-shaped grave of the infant daughter whose death nine years ago apparently haunted him, said Bruce Porter, a fire department chaplain from Colorado who attended the service.

About half of perhaps 75 mourners on hand were Amish.

I would also like to point out that the media was rather quick to learn and use Carl Roberts’ middle name. Mel Gibson’s character in Conspiracy Theory would understand that completely.