I have seen before what happens when a tragedy strikes suddenly and without warning. A gentleman I knew lost his wife in a terrible car accident. One day she was there, smiling and cheerful. And the next day she was gone. Those who experience this kind of sudden loss feel numb for some time thereafter. They often say, It just hasn’t hit me yet. or I can’t feel anything.

It is different when someone dies after a long illness. The wife, the husband, the kids have all prepared themselves and can ease gently into grief. But it doesn’t work the same way when death is sudden, unexpected, unfair—or evil.

On the immediate aftermath of the World Trade Center tragedy, I was watching speeches from the floor of the House and the Senate. Our lawmakers were angry, and frankly, a little spaced out. But on the morning after, when the speeches were given, there was one line in one speech that made my blood run cold. It was a quotation from Isaiah…