Last week I began writing this in light of the shooting at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and the fact that as I was learning about the shooting from Twitter, major news organizations were simply ignoring it for the most part in favor of another story about Washington. While that was important, the fact that 2 people were killed and 4 injured on a college campus seemed to be relegated to a crawl on the screen. Within a few days of that April 30th incident, here in Indianapolis on May 4th, four people were injured in a night that found many victims of gun fire. Then yesterday, in Highland Ranch, Colorado. A Denver suburb only 7 miles from Columbine High School, two young people entered the school and started shooting. One student was fatally shot and eight others were injured; two suspects were taken into custody by police. The dead student like on of those in Charlotte, ran toward the gun to save others. A child in 2nd grade said she heard gun fire and knew what to do because she has been trained since Kindergarten.
What is amazing is that these stories come and go and we move on. There have been 105 events where guns have injured or killed more than 4 people in a single event. How many do you remember hearing about? Did any happen near where you live? They happen everywhere. What is amazing is that while some are criminals killing criminals during criminal behavior or acts of passion fueled by drugs or alcohol, some are clearly premeditated acts of terror. We have grown used to them being part of the background noise that is our culture. As I woke this morning to find out more about the Colorado shooting it was easier to find articles being critical of the Met Gala and the misunderstanding of the concept of Camp and virtually dozens of predictions on the Game of Thrones finale. Not to mention the special report on a baby in England who the vast majority of people will never meet.
The media will pick at the bones of survivors, doing interviews with family and friends, but rarely do they maintain the story as the public health crisis it is. When the ratings fall the news will move on and it will be another story people will only slightly remember.
I understand that it is hard to keep hearing stories of horror in the real world and retreat to the fictional one, or the pablum of human interest, I am so often struck by the lack of care so many have when it doesn't directly touch them. But children dying in school settings should not be the price we pay for freedom. Kevlar jackets, blankets and backpacks should not be lauded as important innovations in the growing security industrial complex but met with sadness. Children as young as 5 should not have to learn sing-sing lessons about what to do if the shooter is in the school. We cant' grow numb to this. It is a national crisis.
Beefing up security, armed guards, armed teachers, metal detectors, etc. are band-aids on a gaping wound and while we might find the aesthetic more pleasant it doesn't address the issue. We must find a way to keep violence as an easy answer to a problem and we must not resign ourselves to this being the way it has to be.
We also don't have to give up our freedoms to do it. There is space for providing road blocks for people who shouldn't have weapons to get them as well as change the culture we live in so that gun violence is not seen as a regular solution. It has happened in other places. We can move forward to make the country safer. To do that we must recognize the problem. After Sandy Hook and the death of all those 5 year olds I thought we would change. What we did was get numb to the deaths. For me that is uncomfortable.
What is amazing is that these stories come and go and we move on. There have been 105 events where guns have injured or killed more than 4 people in a single event. How many do you remember hearing about? Did any happen near where you live? They happen everywhere. What is amazing is that while some are criminals killing criminals during criminal behavior or acts of passion fueled by drugs or alcohol, some are clearly premeditated acts of terror. We have grown used to them being part of the background noise that is our culture. As I woke this morning to find out more about the Colorado shooting it was easier to find articles being critical of the Met Gala and the misunderstanding of the concept of Camp and virtually dozens of predictions on the Game of Thrones finale. Not to mention the special report on a baby in England who the vast majority of people will never meet.
The media will pick at the bones of survivors, doing interviews with family and friends, but rarely do they maintain the story as the public health crisis it is. When the ratings fall the news will move on and it will be another story people will only slightly remember.
I understand that it is hard to keep hearing stories of horror in the real world and retreat to the fictional one, or the pablum of human interest, I am so often struck by the lack of care so many have when it doesn't directly touch them. But children dying in school settings should not be the price we pay for freedom. Kevlar jackets, blankets and backpacks should not be lauded as important innovations in the growing security industrial complex but met with sadness. Children as young as 5 should not have to learn sing-sing lessons about what to do if the shooter is in the school. We cant' grow numb to this. It is a national crisis.
Beefing up security, armed guards, armed teachers, metal detectors, etc. are band-aids on a gaping wound and while we might find the aesthetic more pleasant it doesn't address the issue. We must find a way to keep violence as an easy answer to a problem and we must not resign ourselves to this being the way it has to be.
We also don't have to give up our freedoms to do it. There is space for providing road blocks for people who shouldn't have weapons to get them as well as change the culture we live in so that gun violence is not seen as a regular solution. It has happened in other places. We can move forward to make the country safer. To do that we must recognize the problem. After Sandy Hook and the death of all those 5 year olds I thought we would change. What we did was get numb to the deaths. For me that is uncomfortable.
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