Wandering Along the Path: Right Speech

We went with a friend to the Richard Strauss opera "Arabella" yesterday.  The music was sublime and the voices terrific.  Seeing a comedy-romance rather than a tragedy was a welcome relief.  When we were riding home and turned on our phones we saw that the Tree of Life synagogue had been attacked, and our joy turned to sorrow.  At a bris, no less.  What should have been a celebration for a new life beginning became instead a horror show.  What popped up in my mind was gathering some friends and "guarding" a synagogue during services.  After all, most of the dead are my age or older, so if someone has a yen for gunning down old people, we can make ourselves the target, not innocent worshippers.  It's difficult not to think of our current national situation as a deeply dark period, more frightening than any horror movie or Halloween decoration.  We need to look at ourselves and find our better natures to combat this evil.  And evil it is.