I just don’t know.
How do you explain the insanity of what happened in Connecticut this past Friday? How do you explain the terror of any event that has groups of children being led away with their eyes closed so they don’t have see what has transpired in their once seemingly safe classroom ? I don’t think you can, although god knows that the airwaves are filled with those who think they can.
And the idea that there is somehow an answer to how future horrors like this can be avoided seem futile at best. We all know that this will not be the last time such a scene will occur here. This is the seventh mass killing in the USA this year, the most in any single year. By mass, I mean of four or more victims not including the shooter. Last weekend’s shooting at the mall in Portland, with three deaths, doesn’t even qualify.
How many of us even remember that there was a shooting in Portland last week? It has become just another bit of disturbing news that we filter out and discard with a quick thought that it happened somewhere else and that we ourselves, thankfully, are safe. Then we move on to something a bit less troubling.
To our great sorrow and shame, this type of tragedy has become a regular part of our lives, part of who we are. And that means that there will be no easy answers, if there are answers at all, because that would mean that something would have to change and change drastically. And we cannot accept that much change in our lives. We would rather live with the horror of what we have become than face the alternate challenges of a new possibility.
Besides, who could we turn to to lead us to these needed changes in our culture? The dysfunction of our political system, with extreme partisanship tied to self- and special-interests and the demonizing of one’s enemies, is indicative of the problem itself. There is no one courageous enough to propose any type of solutions that would be large enough to remotely change the culture that enables such horrors to be tolerated.
And if there were, we would probably have to destroy them.
That’s just who we are now.
So, we will mourn these children and their grieving parents and families. The media will buzz over the shooter and his psychological state for a week or two, all the while giving undue attention to this sick creature. The politicians will begin to feign interest in taking action while the special interest groups from both sides will spar in public until something shiny and new captures the attention of the public, at which the debate will fade to background noise that we hardly hear at all. And it will soon be a distant memory.
Then it will happen again. And again. And again.
As I said, I don’t know anything. But I do know that this will not be the last time that parents will face this ultimate horror, won’t be the last time we see images like those from Connecticut. And that makes me want to weep even more.
Redtree Times 