Bad things do happen to good people

The phrase “bad things happen to good people” is something that sticks in my mind. It was the subject of a well-written book, and serves as a thought-provoking phrase when the tide gets too high or I seem to run into one person after another who is mean-spirited and uncaring.

You see, it was one year ago Aug. 3 when the hard-working and dedicated Panguitch, Utah real estate agent Tracy Armstrong was shot four times in his office at the Blue Springs Lodge by a crazed 24-year-old Las Vegas man named Jasson Hines, who was sentenced from four years to life for a senseless crime.

The 45-year-old Armstrong was simply doing his job readying rental cabins when the man walked into the office, opened fire in front of his father and turned the life of a good man into one challenge after another.

And we wonder day after day about why bad things happen to good people like Tracy Armstrong. We wonder why the mean side of society continually thieves and pillages our country without consequences.
Why is it that bad people prosper and continue to hurt people, while good people like Tracy Armstrong are victimized? Compassion is something that people use to have.

Bad people keep right on hurting while walking to the bank with their profits, as the rest of us struggle from day to day to avoid the hurt and the ambush.

Any where. Any time. We are all potential targets of mean people and bad setbacks in a nation rife with chaos, thievery and vandalism. It is happening in churches and it is happening in tiny towns in Southern Utah.

The fact that this happened at all remains mind-boggling to begin with, but when we heard that it happened in Panguitch, it reminded me that the world has indeed gone haywire. A couple with nine children in a quaint little community from Panguitch was the victim of a horrific act of violence that will undoubtedly change the family forever.

Just when we start to get comfortable, someone like Tracy Armstrong is taken down and all at once, we good people are starting to feel like the minority in a world dominated by bad people. Meanwhile, many of the bad people seem to go on without paying the consequences.

Even more amazing is that good people keep on being good and dealing with the everyday struggles and ambushes. People like Armstrong’s wife, Lynn, keep telling the world they’re gonna make it no matter what the challenge while the rest of us worry about the slightest issue.

I mean, talk about getting your priorities in order. I cannot imagine a more dedicated person on earth than Lynn Armstrong, who celebrated her 24th anniversary with Tracy July 13. Her husband has been hurt, and she is determined to help in every way possible whether it means making sure he takes his meds, soothing him with good conversation or simply just being by his side.

Reading the family blog (www.tracyarmstrong.blogspot.com) is like attending a church service seven days a week considering that the family maintains a positive attitude no matter what the latest set back presented. It is inspiring and brings faith to a nation rocked by marital break-ups considering that this particular couple works through daily challenges with a situation that is far from normal.

We complain about the weather being too hot, and Lynn Armstrong deals with the fact that her husband has been paralyzed – and she never waivers. She keeps going because she can’t give up, and in writing her blog she inspires the rest of us to do the same.

“Everyone has different challenges that they have to face, and other people have it hard, too,’’ Mrs. Armstrong said recently. “Just from the comments that have been written, people say they have been inspired by my blog. But their comments inspire me at the same time.”

Thankfully, good people never give up. They get knocked down and they get back up waiting for a right-cross to stagger them again.

They live with the fact that the next vacation probably won’t happen for awhile, and they accept the reality that tomorrow will bring yet another issue. You begin to feel like a soldier in Iraq hoping that the next field has no land mines while also knowing that you had better watch where you step.

At the risk of sounding like a qualified psychologist (which I am not), I have to believe the drug culture has finally caught up with us. We have become victims of mind-altering drugs both legal and illegal that are causing people to shoot others or rip them off of their life savings.

Indeed, it’s true that bad things happen to good people. With all of their problems, Lynn and Tracy Armstrong keep holding the rest of us together.

And we’re not gonna give up either, because Lynn and Tracy Armstrong won’t let us.

Mike Henle is a Las Vegas based freelance writer and the author of “Through the Darkness: One Man’s Fight to Overcome Epilepsy.” He can be contacted via email at mhenle@aol.com or through his web site www.mikehenle.com.