AFTERMATH OF A RAMPAGE – AT THE END OF THE DAY

Monday, right before lunch:  Breaking News Alert on the TV.  Similar to a moment I endured on September 11th not so many years ago, I literally froze and held my breath.  What is happening in our society?  Already, those with selfish agendas are lining up for the finger pointing parades.  Who do we blame?

• Gun control
• VA Tech University Security
• Police Emergency Response
• Mental Health Professionals
• Media & Popular Culture
• Immigration Burdens
• The Gunman’s Family, Friends, Roommates

My opinion, society is our major contributor to these tragedies.  Commonplace in our reality today are many expressions of violence; rage, desperation, insanity, desire for personal gain, discrimination or more simply, ignorance.  Prejudice for those who are different, contempt for unexplainable reasons and a blind eye to those who are suffering are pervasive in our mainstream culture.

Violence permeates our minds and hearts.  Following the incident at VA Tech, our moral outrage peaks until time and other facets of life distract our thoughts.  The effects of violence are constructive only in that the consequences determine our agenda, retroactively.

Violence is impractical because it is a descending spiral ending in destruction for all. It is immoral because it seeks to humiliate the opponent rather than win his understanding: it seeks to annihilate rather than convert. Violence is immoral because it thrives on hatred rather than love. It destroys community and makes brotherhood impossible. It leaves society in monologue rather than dialogue. Violence ends up defeating itself. It creates bitterness in the survivors and brutality in the destroyers.

Martin Luther King, 1964

Expressions of sympathy pour out to the survivors of violent attacks, while words of gratitude are silently murmured that it was not our loved one.  As the parent of one graduate student and one college bound teen, it was by the grace of God it was not UNC-Chapel Hill.  We all pray ”someone” will address these atrocities.  Who will be that “someone?”  Our collective lack of humanity is creating an environment where these incidents occur faster than we can lock away, rehabilitate or execute the violent offenders. 

Do I believe that our society prompted Cho Seung-Hui to inflict this devastation?  Probably not.  There will be much speculation on what prompted this attack; mental illness, evil, environment, personal choice, abuse, genetics or character flaws.  Let us all take pause and make a positive impact on our individual communities, accepting responsibility for our actions, embrace our differences, discover our compassion, humanity and respect for others may assist us in becoming that “someone.”  Just my two cents.

At the end of the day, Where is The Love?