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Courage under fire and grace after it. What Americans learned from a firefighter and a first lady

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Courage under fire and grace after it. What Americans learned from a firefighter and a first lady

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In his spiritual autobiography “Confessions,” St. Augustine of Hippo wrote that “evil is nothing but the removal of good until finally no good remains.” In his later work “The Enchiridion,” he observed that God, who is supremely good, can bring good even out of evil.

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I recalled these timeless thoughts on the nature of evil and the reason for its persistence as I read the words of one person intimately close to the horrific tragedy in Butler, Pennsylvania last weekend, and reflected on the actions of another.

In her first statement after the assassination attempt on her husband’s life, former first lady Melania Trump said something profoundly beautiful: “political games are inferior to love.” Those last three words – inferior to love – resonated, for so much was said with so little.

HERO TRUMP RALLY VICTIM COREY COMPERATORE DIED SHIELDING FAMILY AND ‘WOULD’VE DONE IT AGAIN,’ FRIEND SAYS

Even though likely still in shock, she was able to see unadulterated evil, terrifying and ugly as it may appear up close, for what it is. It is the presence of nothing, only the absence of goodness. This is an important insight at a precarious moment in the great American experiment.

Every husband and father prays he has that valor within him, that he would choose the greatest love – to lay down his life for his family – if ever the time came.

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Mrs. Trump’s words show how to lower the temperature of our national discourse. If evil, like a shadow to light, is the absence of the good, then goodness, while still so much more, is at the very least the absence of evil. This means evil is defeatable by displacement.

MELANIA TRUMP’S CALL TO ‘ASCEND ABOVE THE HATE’ SHOULD BE RALLYING CRY FOR ALL AMERICANS

In a finite world, every act of goodness crowds out the space for evil in a zero-sum sense. Choosing good halts the diminishment of the transcendent that, by definition, is evil. And the greatest restorative good of all is love, as the former first lady so succinctly suggested.

FILE – Former first Lady Melania Trump speaks at the National Archives Naturalization Ceremony. (CSPAN )

As befits a firefighter, Corey Comperatore’s loving choice came not in words, for he had no time to reflect, only action. As soon as shots were fired, he used his own body to shield his family from a barrage of deadly gunfire. In the end, he traded his own life to save the ones he loved most dearly.

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Perhaps Mr. Comperatore thought about it a thousand times before, so at the time of choosing it was muscle memory. Every husband and father prays he has that valor within him, that he would choose the greatest love – to lay down his life for his family – if ever the time came.

Corey Comperatore was the Trump rally goer who was killed on Saturday in an assassination attempt on former President Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania.  (Facebook)

The Comperatore family need not wonder whom their father and husband loved, or how greatly. Love, a volitional act, is willing the good of the other; the more selfless the act, the more pure the love. In the end, Mr. Comperatore loved with a self-emptying heart, as purely as any mortal man can do.

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In a tragedy’s aftermath, Mrs. Trump counseled a nation on how to avoid future evil. When evil is inevitable, a hero firefighter showed his countrymen how to make greater good out of it. 

St. Augustine is proud of both of them, a fact he can share directly with Mr. Comperatore. 

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM MIKE KERRIGAN

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New Hampshire

5-year-old injured in New Year’s day Manchester, New Hampshire apartment building fire dies

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5-year-old injured in New Year’s day Manchester, New Hampshire apartment building fire dies



The child who was injured during a New Year’s Day apartment building fire in Manchester, New Hampshire has died, the New Hampshire State Fire Marshal announced on Saturday.

The 5-year-old girl had been found unresponsive in a fourth-floor bedroom by firefighters. She was rushed to a Boston hospital in critical condition and passed on Wednesday. The Massachusetts Office of the Chief Medical Examiner has performed an autopsy to determine her cause of death.

The fire began just 30 minutes after midnight on Union Street. The flames raged on the third and fourth floors before spreading to the roof. One man was killed in the fire. He was identified as 70-year-old Thomas J. Casey, and his cause of death was determined to be smoke inhalation, according to the medical examiner.

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One woman was rushed to a Boston hospital in critical condition. Five other people received serious injuries and were hospitalized. All the victims have since been discharged, according to the fire marshal. 

Residents could be seen waiting in windows and on balconies for firefighters to rescue them. 

“I kicked into high gear. I got my family rallied up. My son, my daughter, my wife. And I tried to find a way to get down safely off of one of the railings by trying to slide down one of the poles. But that didn’t work out,” said resident Jonathan Barrett. 

Fire investigators believe the fire is not suspicious and started in a third-floor bedroom. The building did not have a sprinkler system but did have an operational fire alarm, the fire marshal said. 

Around 10 families were displaced by the fire and are receiving help from the Red Cross. Around 50 people lived in the building.  

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New Jersey

Isolated snow showers, wind gusts up to 35 mph in N.J. forecast for Sunday

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Isolated snow showers, wind gusts up to 35 mph in N.J. forecast for Sunday


Rain will continue through tonight across New Jersey before a cold front passes through Sunday morning, followed by wind gusts up to 35 mph and the chance of isolated snow showers.

The heaviest rain tonight is expected along the southern portions of the state where 1 and 1.5 inches rainfall totals are possible, according to the National Weather Service.

Most other areas of New Jersey should receive around 1 inch of rain, with the northwest portions of the state picking up 0.5 to 0.75 inches.

Heavy rain is expected to soak New Jersey through most of Saturday with rainfall totals up to 1.5 inches expected in the southern half of the state.National Weather Service

Once the rain ends between 6 and 9 a.m. Sunday, conditions should remain cloudy and foggy until a cold front passes through late Sunday morning into early Sunday afternoon.

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Temperatures will drop into the upper 30s to low 40s Sunday morning as cold air moves in behind the first cold front.

A secondary cold front will cross New Jersey late Sunday afternoon accompanied by a period of rain and snow showers.

The isolated snow showers are possible mainly from 7 to 11 p.m., the weather service said. Snow accumulations are not expected in New Jersey.

Winds of 15 to 20 mph on Sunday afternoon are expected to increase to 25 to 35 mph by sunset.

Monday’s forecast calls for mainly clear skies with temperatures in the upper 30s to low 40s and winds gradually diminishing.

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Tuesday will be milder with above-normal temperatures and mainly clear to partly cloudy skies, with a slight chance of some rain showers possible.

Wednesday’s temperatures will remain above normal with partly cloudy skies and a slight chance of rain showers as a cold front approaches from the west.

N.J. weather: Snow from costal winter storm possible next week
Forecasters are tracking the potential for a coastal storm that could bring snow to New Jersey late next week, or veer out to sea.AccuWeather.com

A potential coastal storm could impact New Jersey with snow on Thursday and Friday, though significant uncertainty remains regarding the exact track and timing of the system, the weather service said.

Some forecast models suggest a significant winter storm while others indicate the system will remain offshore.

N.J. weather: Snow from costal winter storm possible next week
Forecasters are tracking the potential for a coastal storm that could bring snow to New Jersey late next week, or veer out to sea.AccuWeather.com

A colder air mass is forecast to move into New Jersey by late next week and into the following weekend.

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Pennsylvania

100 skulls and mummified body parts found in a Pennsylvania grave robbery case, police say | CNN

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100 skulls and mummified body parts found in a Pennsylvania grave robbery case, police say | CNN




AP
 — 

Bones and skulls visible in the back seat of a car near an abandoned cemetery on Philadelphia’s outskirts led police to a basement filled with body parts, which authorities say were hoarded by a man now accused of stealing about 100 sets of human remains.

Officers say a Tuesday night arrest culminated a monthslong investigation into break-ins at Mount Moriah Cemetery, where at least 26 mausoleums and vaults had been forced open since early November.

Investigators later searched the Ephrata home and storage unit of Jonathan Christ Gerlach, 34, and reported finding more than 100 human skulls, long bones, mummified hands and feet, two decomposing torsos and other skeletal items.

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“They were in various states. Some of them were hanging, as it were. Some of them were pieced together, some were just skulls on a shelf,” Delaware County District Attorney Tanner Rouse said.

Most were in the basement, authorities said, and they also recovered jewelry believed to be linked to the graves. In one case, a pacemaker was still attached.

Police say Gerlach targeted mausoleums and underground vaults at the 1855 cemetery. It’s considered the country’s largest abandoned burial ground, according to Friends of Mount Moriah Cemetery, which helps maintain the 160-acre landmark in Yeadon that’s home to an estimated 150,000 grave sites.

Police had been looking into the string of burglaries when an investigator checked Gerlach’s vehicle plates and found he had been near Yeadon repeatedly during the period when the burglaries occurred. Police say the break-ins centered on sealed vaults and mausoleums containing older burials, which had been smashed open or had stonework damaged to reach the remains inside.

He was arrested as he walked back toward his car with a crowbar, police said, and a burlap bag in which officers found the mummified remains of two small children, three skulls and other bones.

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Gerlach told investigators he took about 30 sets of human remains and showed them the graves he stole from, police said.

“Given the enormity of what we are looking at and the sheer, utter lack of reasonable explanation, it’s difficult to say right now, at this juncture, exactly what took place. We’re trying to figure it out,” Rouse told reporters.

Gerlach was charged with 100 counts each of abuse of a corpse and receiving stolen property, along with multiple counts of desecrating a public monument, desecrating a venerated object, desecrating a historic burial place, burglary, trespassing and theft.

He is jailed on $1 million bond. No lawyer was listed in court records. A message seeking comment was texted to a cellphone linked to him.

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