I saw it again today on Facebook… a response to the latest attacking to kill  madness… this time at Ohio State… the place seems to change… some place different every time… the weapon may change but the idea is the same… the wanton slaughter of others… for a variety of crazy reasons.  The comment I saw on Facebook was… “What is wrong with people?”  Good question.

We hear those same words regularly in conversations.  The message is clear.  People shouldn’t act like this.  People shouldn’t do these things. Right here in little old Vermont we have seen a major Ponzi scheme defrauding people of a ton-a-bunch of money… drug busts regularly… sex trafficking … child porn indictments… a baby beaten to death by a grumpy parent… one horror story after another… and… we ask the question again…. and again… “What is wrong with people?”

This comes from our understanding that human beings are basically good… so people should not do terrible evil things… it is certainly what I always thought… I mean, I always felt I was a pretty nice guy… even used to kid around saying  “I may not be the best… but I’m as good as the rest!”…  even though I knew I was better than most.  Ok… I may do something stupid once in a while, but basically I am a really good guy… I thought that way until the day I got  separated… then it all changed.

For all the years since my  “Separation Day” on June 24th, 1968, I have discovered over and over and over again, that my basic assumption that I was born “good”… was totally wrong.  It is not something I could even begin to see  before  that day… but I no longer ask that question… “What is wrong with people?”.… because I know what is wrong with people… I know what is wrong with me…I need to be  separated.