Every TV ad showing a young child, sitting with my
granddaughters, hearing children happily babbling in a restaurant…conjures
images of the children slain in Connecticut .
Happens every time. Perhaps with you as well?
Happy time of year. Christmas is coming. Santa with that big
bag of gifts just for kids. Dreams of good things and good times. Glee.
Giggles. Cold outside but warm and safe inside.
This is the season for happy children. The juxtaposition of
poor kids left wanting motivates others with spare cash to reach out and share
gifts for strangers, meals for the hungry, families too.
In this year of 2012 the juxtaposition may be more severe…is
more severe. It is of the picturesque town of Newtown
and Sandy Hook …rolling hills…hard wood
trees…pine forests…colonial style homes – some new, some very, very old –
Christmas decorations all around the town. And then the scenes of first
responders, ambulances, anxious crowds of parents and neighbors. People reeling
from the horror they picture inside the school.
And the horror was real. Even the worst images in the mind
were made true by news reports and solemn news conferences by state troopers.
Huddled classes with teacher among them; shot and bloodied on the floor. Dreadful
images. No photos needed. Cringe and shake; pull back and gasp. This could be
my kids, or my recent college grad child beginning a new teaching career.
And then the questions. How? Why? Who? And again, why? Why?
Why?
We must ask. We will get some answers although partial. We
will never truly know. But we will always ask why?
It is important to ask the questions. It is part of the
healing. Reaching a point of balance with reason. And caring for the survivors
when anguish fades a bit for the victims. Caring is something to do. To take
action. To seek to comfort others. To bring calm and comfort.
And then to gather with others. Share the common-ness of
experience, of feeling. Sorrow. Sadness.
One-ness.
Getting lives back to order and routine. Think of ways to
avoid these crises in the future. Avert blame and seek positive means to handle
our grief. And loss.
As the families and neighbors grieve for those lost the rest
of us feel compassion. We grieve, too, for the loss of order and peace and
safety. We have lost something basic in our lives. It is proper to feel this
way. It is natural. It will comfort us in time and give us motivation to remain
involved in the lives of others.
And never forget what lurks on the other side of our routine
lives. This could happen to me. To you. How do we guard against such events?
What can we do? What should we do?
We can stave off these kinds of events if we stop pouring psycho-active drugs down the throats of everyone who seems to be acting "differently" than the norm. Prescriptions drugs are some of the most dangerous chemicals on the planet and we pass them out as if they are safe and effective.
ReplyDeleteI recently interviewed someone who recently retired from the Air Force and she was quick to point out that she did NOT serve in a war zone, had NO issues with post traumatic stress, and was NOT taking any prescription drugs. Why? She reminded me that veterans are having a hard time finding work because the perception is that they will be using excessive psycho-active or pain killing drugs. Sadly, the perception is very close to reality. Those poor veterans are being drugged into mindlessness.
While the incidence in veterans is high, the rest of us are also bombarded with toxic drugs. Sometimes we swallow them intentionally because some duped doctor believes they help instead of hurt. At other times we ingest the stuff without knowing - in the pap that passes for food and water these days.
Instead of wringing our hands and shedding tears about our losses we should be looking for things that will fix us. No, guns themselves don't do the killing. Deranged people on psycho active drugs do it. Stop drugging so many people and we will see fewer mass disasters. I promise.
I think I agree with much of what you say, especially about drugs. But, the wringing of hands and shedding of tears is a necessary part of motivating us to find answers.
DeleteThe answer is a combination of addressing mental health issues and treatment in a way that does not expose the rest of society to an onslaught of violence. And logical gun restriction will also help. Neither action should be done alone. In concert we might make some progress. But I'll let the experts seek the facts that, when managed properly, will yield better results than we have today.
Again, thanks for your feedback.