For the second time is as many weeks, we have witnessed unspeakable violence in our nation.
Last weekend, residents of the small community of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho lined a highway to honor two firefighters shot to death in an ambush. These professionals were responding to a blaze that police believe was deliberately set for the specific purpose of luring, then murdering, firefighters.
Bruce Mattare, a commissioner for Coeur d'Alene's Kootenai County, told CNN:
"The people we lost were absolutely top-notch professionals. It's unheard of for something like this to happen in this community. People are still trying to process exactly what happened."
Aren't we all.
Police still have not suggested a motive for the deadly ambush but, at the end of the day, it does not matter. The murders of first responders are incomprehensible on any level.
One official is quoted as saying the ambush was "a fairly complex attack where he intended to harm more people than he did." That statement is tough to process and even tougher to comprehend. This appears to be a vicious and calculated attack on those who put their lives on the line every time a fire call comes in.
Consider how New Yorkers, and the entire nation, stood with those first responders in the wake of 9/11 when 343 city firefighters were among the nearly three thousand killed when radical Islamic terrorists attacked our nation. Think of all the volunteer firefighters who have died in the line of duty over the years protecting the lives and properties of their neighbors.
As one who remains in awe of the men and women who race to the scene of fires and emergency calls, many of them volunteers, we need to stand as one with those who were killed in Idaho. We need to offer our prayers to their grieving families, and we need to thank once more the law enforcement professionals who promptly responded to the attack.
We not only need to condemn this wanton act, but we need to use this senseless assault as a moral imperative directing us to turn to every first responder in our nation and remind them that we recognize the debt we owe them for their dedication, integrity and courage.
May the memories of those firefighters killed in ambush be a blessing.
Lawrence Kadish serves on the Board of Governors of Gatestone Institute.
