We want to know.<\/p>\n
From the Undersheriff of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, Kevin McMahill [note: emphasis mine]:<\/p>\n
\u201cTo date, we have run down well more than a thousand leads in this investigation. While some of it has helped create a better profile into the madness of this suspect, we do not still have a clear motive or reason why<\/strong>\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n We all want answers.<\/strong> We have looked at everything \u2014 literally \u2014 to include the suspect\u2019s personal life, any political affiliation, his social behaviors, economic situation\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n We\u2019re also aware, of course, that ISIS has repeatedly claimed responsibility, which today, I can tell you, that we have no known nexus to.<\/em><\/p>\n In the past, terror attacks or mass murder incidents, motive was made very clear \u2014 very clear in most of those cases by a note that was left, by a social media post, by a telephone call that was made, by investigators mining computer data. Today, in our investigation, we don\u2019t have any of that uncovered. I wish we did. We will and are continuing to investigate with great tenacity, and hope to arrive at an answer.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n In other words, we don\u2019t know. We don\u2019t know why the suspect in last week\u2019s shooting did what he did.<\/p>\n We don\u2019t know motive. We don\u2019t know the reason why.<\/p>\n And we aren\u2019t very good at not knowing.<\/p>\n Isn\u2019t that true?<\/em><\/p>\n Over the course of recent years, I have observed so many of us struggle with what we don\u2019t know\u2026 when we don\u2019t understand why someone would do something we wouldn\u2019t do\u2026 when we don\u2019t understand why someone would say something we wouldn\u2019t say\u2026<\/p>\n (Let\u2019s go deeper\u2026)<\/em><\/p>\n \u2026 when we don\u2019t know why someone would vote for one for whom we wouldn\u2019t vote\u2026 when we don\u2019t know why someone would support a cause we wouldn\u2019t support\u2026<\/p>\n We struggle when we don\u2019t know\u2026 when we don\u2019t understand another. I think that struggle is very real.<\/p>\n Allow me to insert a parental metaphor here, especially being the parent of one son with special needs among my three. There are so many times as these boys have become men that I had zero clue why they did what they did or said what they said. I did not know.<\/p>\n But as a parent \u2014 admittedly making many missteps along the way \u2014 I soon learned that it was impossible to always know. It was impossible to always discern the clear motive or reason for their behavior. And after being hit over the head with a few hundred, seemingly divine two-by-fours, I surrendered the right to know. Funny, the more willing I was to surrender my need to know, the more I learned, the more I grew, and the more I was free to love and become a better parent.<\/p>\n The key is resisting the intellectual lure to assign motive in the absence of clarity. I deeply believe that intellect too often gets in the way; it is not (repeat, not<\/strong>)<\/em> the equivalent of wisdom.<\/p>\n We crave knowing, and therefore, we assume we always can. So in the absence of clarity, we often assign motive or reason when someone does something we wouldn\u2019t do, says something we wouldn\u2019t say, votes how we wouldn\u2019t vote, or supports what we wouldn\u2019t support. In place of humble investigation, patience in the process, and\/or prayerful revelation, we assign motive.<\/p>\n As we then fall into that troubling trap, believing we are omniscient enough to assign said motive or reason, we miss out on potential learning. Sometimes we even use the exercise to judge, unfriend, or to love another less.<\/p>\n I admit: not knowing is hard. And when that not knowing comes in conjunction, for example, with the manifestation of evil witnessed last week on the Las Vegas Strip, we search with increased tenacity to understand the why.<\/p>\n We search. We pray. Hopefully, we will one day know.<\/p>\n But sometimes we have to be ok with not.<\/p>\n Respectfully\u2026 We want to know. From the Undersheriff of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, Kevin McMahill [note: emphasis mine]: \u201cTo date, we have run down well more than a thousand leads in this investigation. While some of it has helped create a better profile into the madness of this suspect, we do not still have … <\/p>\n
\nAR<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"