Students from across the nation are reflecting on the recent terror attack in Boston and its aftermath.

St. Louis University student Amy Lutz takes a look at the concept of evil as it relates to  these events:

When did we stop acknowledging evil and try to justify or explain it instead?

I find myself asking this question as the media scrapes the bottom of the barrel of classmates who knew alleged Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhr Tsarnaev. He was a “quiet, sweet boy.” He was “an angel.” He was a lifeguard, a student, a normal kid. Well I don’t know about you, but “normal” teenagers don’t detonate bombs feet away from an 8-year-old child.

Chechen President, Ramzan Kadyrov, suggested that the Tsarnaev brothers learned their evil ways, claiming, “It is necessary to seek the roots of evil in America.” Others have suggested that he is the product of a bad upbringing. However, no matter what the explanation of the moment may be, the words “terrorist” and “evil” have become far from politically correct.

This shouldn’t surprise anyone, to be completely honest. We simply don’t label evil anymore. James Holmes? Well he was inspired by the violence media. Oh and he had a gun, which obviously turn normal Americans into vicious killers. Or something. Adam Lanza was also armed and had been on some sort of medication. According to the left, Jared Loughner was incited by the “violent rhetoric” spun by the Tea Party (give me a break). Kermit Gosnell is merely a product of an unregulated abortion system. No matter what the blameworthy person or cause of the day, our culture always finds a way to point the finger away from the person who pulled the trigger (or planted the bomb, etc.).

When did it become so horrible to call out evil for what it is? I don’t know about you, but I have no issue with calling someone who takes innocent lives for whatever reason evil. Shooting up a theater of innocent movie-goers? That’s evil. Snipping the spines of living, breathing babies? That’s evil. No amount of political correctness should keep us from labeling an evil act for what it is. Unfortunately, that seems to be exactly what’s happening. No one wants to “label” another human being so we keep our mouths shut. Tucson shooter Jared Loughner had obvious issues long before he pulled the trigger on that fateful January day. Yet we didn’t hear about the numerous safety reports regarding his behavior in college until after he had been arrested. By then it was too late. Apparently the doctrine of “if you see something, say something” has gone by the wayside.

As Chesterton said, we cannot merely be passive observers in the fight between good and evil. We must become the enemy of evil or else we are doomed to become its passive supporters from now until the end of time.