Today is Thursday. So far this week, 13-year-old Yaakov Mandell and 14-year-old Yoshef Ishran were stoned to death in Israel by approximately eighteen Palestinians. On the same day, 11-year-old Tamiqua Gutierrez was raped and murdered right outside her apartment door in the Bronx. The very next day – also in the Bronx – 32-year-old cab driver Anedilva Brown was found dead behind the wheel of her taxi – while in State Supreme Court in Manhattan that same day, 51-year-old Ronald Short was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for hacking his 7-year-old son Richard and his 3-year-old son John to death with a hatchet. It may be hard to believe – but all that horror took place within the same forty-eight hours.

When will this stop?

When will a week go by that someone is not beaten, raped, murdered or kidnapped in this world? Why must another family endure burying a loved one that did not die by natural causes? Why must more people fear for their safety and for their very lives because they see random, senseless acts of violence on television, in the papers – and sometimes – in their own neighborhood far too often? And most importantly – how could someone actually commit an act of violence that horrific?

In my wildest dreams, I could not even fathom doing harm to another individual. Even if my life was placed in danger and I had to defend myself to save my own life, I don’t think I could do it. Sure, there were times when someone upset me so much that I wanted to kill them – but saying it and doing it are two different things. I think all of us have wanted to kill someone at one point in our lives – but could never dream of actually carrying it out. The frightening thing is – there are people out there who can.

In the history of human existence, there have been so many horrible acts of violence that even thinking about them chills anyone to the bone. I’m sure we can all name a few “famous” killers – Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer, Charles Manson – and Timothy McVeigh. The sad thing is that there are so many other deaths that occur that are not sensationalized by the press – so the only people that know about them are the families of the victims.

I don’t know what I would do if – Godforbid – a member of my family fell victim to a crime and lost their life. To lose a loved one to an incurable disease or a heart attack is one thing – but to find out that a complete stranger took the life from a person I loved would be something that I would never be able to recover from – and yet this happens around the world each and every day.

The unfortunate truth is that no matter what we do as a society to combat crimes of this nature – we can never eradicate crime completely. There will always be a handful of sickos who insist on taking away the lives of others and destroying the lives of their victim’s living relatives – for they are the real victims. Granted the person who is murdered loses their life – but the victim’s family members have to live the rest of their lives with the fact that their innocent, helpless family members had their lives cut short because of someone else’s rage, anger – and insanity.

I hope to God that something like this never happens to a member of my family. I also hope that no other family in this world has to endure this kind of tragedy – but unfortunately – all I can do is hope.