Ridin', Reinin' and Writin'

I almost never watch the news. If anything happens I have to know about, someone tells me and I pick up more than I need to know on Facebook. I do, however, watch a talk show once in a while and it was on one of those that I saw a story that touched me deeply. The story was about a teen mom who shot an intruder to protect her baby and herself.

Shootings happen every day, several times a day, I suspect, so what about this one was different? What about this one affected me while others I didn’t want to hear about?
The answer is this: Sarah McKinley is a recently-widowed 18-year-old mother living alone with her baby and her dogs on a huge acreage in Oklahoma. Sarah did not want to kill anyone and did everything possible to avoid that but, on December 31, 2011, Sarah did what she had to do. She shot and killed Justin Martin.

The events leading up to this terrifying night read like a script for a movie – Sarah’s husband dies of lung cancer on Christmas Day, two of her dogs are poisoned (she raises German shepherds), her house is entered while she is away, Justin Martin 'visits’ the evening of her husband’s funeral but retreats when he sees she has company (Sarah’s sister and brother-in-law were with her) and, finally, Sarah is alone with her baby on New Year’s eve when she hears someone trying to enter her home.

What did she do? She did what she had to do. She picked up her baby, a shotgun and a pistol and backed into her bedroom. Over the sounds of her door latch breaking she called 911 on her cell phone.

"Is it okay to shoot if he comes in this door?" she asked.

“I can’t tell you to do that,” the dispatcher said, “But you do what you have to do to protect your baby.” So she did.

When Justin Martin entered her home with a knife in his hand, she aimed the shotgun and pulled the trigger.

Was she a hero? Certainly she has the label but I think she was just someone who did what she had to do. There is never glory in taking a life and Sarah knows that. She has had to bear, at her young age, more than most will bear in a life time – losing her husband three months after their son was born, burying her husband and her poisoned dogs in the same week and living a real life crime drama. Understandably, she is numb.

Sarah did what she had to do. (Makes me think of the animal world. Many times I’ve seen examples of how ferocious a mother is when she is protecting her baby.) You go girl!

Could I do what Sarah did? Not sure... I hate guns. But, faced with what Sarah faced on New Year’s Eve I hope I could be as courageous. You go, girl!

Note: Two weeks after this story, a captain of a sinking cruise ship abandoned his ship and passengers to save his own skin. Comparing these two people facing a crisis cannot be done. Makes you realize what people are made of, doesn't it?