I didn't write about Newtown yesterday because there's something dirty to me about writing while details of such an event are still coming in. And I didn't do it earlier today because there are qualified people writing about it. But with a shooting of this scale, with these targets, and being that it was the second shooting this week (and a third in Alabama this morning, though luckily only the shooter seems to have been killed), letting it pass would be an unforgivable oversight for me. So, two quick things:
1. Guns are not the full problem. And gun control is not the full solution. But a sane society would acknowledge the relevance of both of those things.
2. If you haven't seen this video following any of the how-many shootings we've witnessed over the last few years, please do it now. Your watching it won't fix anything, of course, but it deserves to be absorbed. The news media's pathological exploitation is usually merely irritating. But it can also be dangerous (let alone offensive) when put into the hands of self-absorbed prats, oblivious to the impacts of their desperate pandering. Umpteen interviews with small children who had just been through an intensely traumatic event does nothing for anyone.
Those kids and those teachers deserve more than squabbling over who's to blame. But they also deserve to have their lives be given some meaning beyond unfathomable tragedy. As so many others have written, I'd like to not be writing another post like this in a few months.
No comments:
Post a Comment