Mourning: Chattanooga shooting victims should be in our prayers

There will be time to talk about policy later.

There will be a lot of analysis over the next few days about the events that led to the deaths of four Marines.

We will wonder why -- and, more importantly, what we can do to prevent something like this atrocity from happening in the future.

But until those discussions begin, we should be thinking about something else as we watch the investigation continue in Tennessee.

The victims and their families.

Those we lost Thursday were Marines -- a branch of the service known for its members' toughness and courage. And they likely had service records to go along with their uniforms.

They leave behind families who weathered deployments and other concerns only to lose their loved ones in a senseless act of violence.

We need to remember them as we talk about next steps and what went wrong. Their faces and memory should be a part of any discussion.

And we need to remember, too, all those who serve and are in harm's way.

They need not only our prayers, but our thoughts and actions now more than ever.

Published in Editorials on July 17, 2015 11:01 AM