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 
Changes can come, but you’re right that they won’t come from the politicians, the bureaucrats, the media or the pundits. They won’t even come from changed gun laws, as worthwhile as some change in that regard would be.
The fact is we live in a violence-saturated society. I spent some time in Liberia, another violence-saturated society. There, the violence led to a horrific civil war. The story of how that war came to an end, and how the disarming of the population began, is inspiring. If you’ve seen it, as I had, another look is useful for reinstilling a little hope. If you haven’t seen it, it’s a tough watch. But it’s real, factual and true. It’s one of the best Christmas stories ever.
Pray the Devil Back to Hell
I will try to watch this. Thanks, Linda.
Seven in the past year? And the one in Oregon doesn’t fit in that figure? My heart aches more. I am not often around televisions, and the ones that I see in random restaurants usually show futbol or daytime soap dramas. There is a soft cushion or buffer between the outside world and my world. When I read posts like yours, my jaw drops a bit while I absorb the stats.
How will those survivors ever purge that day from their memories? It will forever be branded in their psyches.
z
I don’t think they can purge the memory. Nor should they or we do so.
no.. only purge the grief. i’ve learned that all swallowed tears eventually come back out, but yes, the memories and scars are with us forever.
z
On Friday a friend sent me a link to this article in The Onion. She said it expressed exactly what she was feeling.
That’s about what I was thinking…
Usually I like to watch the Sunday morning television political shows but had to turn it off this morning because they just kept asking the question “why” and of course no one was answering it. I don’t think we can adopt the attitude expressed in The Onion and believe sitting in front of the computer and listening to what others are saying and thinking and feeling is a beginning if we can only stick with our questioning in an attempt to analyze what is making young people commit such insanity. If we simply listen to the politicians and reporters we will get nowhere, as usual, but maybe if we listen to each other and pay more attention to the youth who are saying “fuck it”, then we might learn how to help.
You’re right, that we can’t simply adopt the “fuck it” attitude and accept this as simply being the way it is and that we are helpless to stop it. We can’t let this pain of this fade away without examining what in our culture prompts such actions.
You may or may not want to visit my reblogged post from August that I reposted again today. The litany seems to be “again.”
Well put post.
So terrible… & how awfully close this can come in our orbits: Just spoke with my mom, who over the weekend met a woman headed to Newtown the next day .. The only child of the woman’s close friend was one of the victims.