It's taken me a while to process the
reality of the horrid events in Newtown, Connecticut. I could have
easily just responded emotionally to the massacre, writing about how
horrible it made me and others feel. I could have just as easily
tried to be logical about it, casting it as an act by a deranged
individual that could not have been prevented. But in the end I did
neither.
I wanted to put a little distance
between me and the 27 deaths in the Sandy Hook Elementary School
before I sat down in front of my computer to write this. I wanted to
be able to look at what happened with a dispassionate eye while at
the same time remembering that so many families have lost loved ones,
mostly children. And what makes it worse is that it happened just
before Christmas, for how many unopened presents will remain under
Christmas trees in a number of homes in Newtown this year? How will
parents cope with the senseless death of their child? How will
brothers and sisters deal with the death of their sibling? How will
children deal with the death of a parent? These are questions none of
us want to contemplate, but something that we must. It's something
that many of us will have to deal with at one level or another at
some point in our lives.
The more 'passionate' amongst us –
mainly those who “won't let any good crisis go to waste” - are
already pointing fingers. The problem is that they're willing to
point them at those in no way connected to the madman who perpetrated
this atrocity. They aren't looking to blame the madman, believing
that somehow “it's all society's fault.” Instead they're trying
to lay blame on everyone else. These are the same people who will now
be demanding that we “Do something!” at the top of their lungs,
even though it might be the wrong something. They'll want to ban or
confiscate guns, turn our schools into fortresses, try to implement
'programs' and 'initiatives' that are supposed to prevent something
like this from ever happening again. The problem is that they're
focusing in the wrong areas. In the end none of those somethings will
prevent such things from happening again. All they will do is give a
false sense of security and waste a lot of money and effort, but the
“Do something!” crowd will feel
better about it...until the next time.
But
the problem isn't society. The problem isn't guns. The problem isn't
the lack of programs and initiatives. The problem is the individuals
who decide it's permissible to use violence against people who have
done them no harm. Whether the motive is revenge for wrongs real or
perceived, a mental breakdown, or drug induced psychosis, it is the
individuals who commit these heinous crimes who are to blame. It is
best to keep that in mind as the story of what happened in Newtown is
revealed.