BETWEEN THE LINES: AMERICA SHOWS STRENGTH AMID RECENT TRAGEDIES

Recently, I have learned a little about how strong people are.

Americans bounce back in the face of trouble and calamity, often with more strength than ever before. We are a resilient people.

Last week, while watching television news coverage of Hurricane Floyd and seeing the broadcasts after a church shooting, I've learned that we are a people who carry on despite the turmoils and dangers that befall us.

Despite those devastating floods and fires caused by Hurricane Floyd or the senseless shootings at a Texas church, life continues. People will rebuild their homes and businesses, and even their lives.

They've done it in Southeast Missouri after disastrous flooding, they'll do it again in North Carolina and New Jersey and other cities along the coast.

Sure, those people will feel the loss and even mourn that loss for some time. But they all aren't ready to give up -- at least not yet. Thank God.

Carrying on sometimes means putting on a brave face in the midst of great turmoil.

I'd imagine that's what many people did Sunday at Wedgwood Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas. Through their tears and songs of praise, they admitted that they didn't have the answers.

But a nation of people were looking to them for help in understanding what happened, and what to do next. They did what they know how to do: hold worship.

I was more affected by this shooting than some of the other violent acts at schools. Not only was I sad that people died, but I was angry that someone violated the sanctuary of the church. People certainly don't expect their church to be a target of a random shooting. It was one of the last places that we could feel completely safe.

And with violence at Jewish centers and synagogues and now Protestant churches, it seems like we are grasping for an intangible. We seek sanctuary; churches and religious places provide that. Now even that trust has been broken by this incident.

Although they might not know exactly how to respond or what to say, just worshipping together Sunday as if it were any other Sunday at church was a clear enough picture from the Wedgwood congregation.

They gathered Sunday with faith, hope and love -- not just to show that they could, but that they wouldn't be destroyed by the evil surrounding them.

For their courage, power and strength, I'm grateful. It sends a message of hope to a nation seemingly without.

~Laura Johnston is a copy editor for the Southeast Missourian.