How could this happen?
A 16 year old took an AK-47 into an Omaha mall this week. He killed 8 people.
When I first saw the headline I paused for a minute. But sadly I have to say I was not in total shock.. It would be a stretch to say that this kind of an occurrence is common. It would also be a stretch to say that this type of assault is no longer expected.
I have a hard time rationalizing why someone would choose to do this. No matter how difficult and hard things are in your life, why would you inflict such pain on other people and their families, none of whom were the source of your problems?
After Columbine I had come to a conclusion. It was simply that somethings you can't explain and that there is simply evil in this world that will at times manifest itself. I don't know if I believe that entirely anymore. It seems to me there is a certain percentage of our population that feels left out and ostracized. I am not trying to be insensitive here but the people who are pulling the trigger aren't the prom king and they aren't the football hero. They are the ones that are picked on at school or who are economically powerless. It certainly does not justify their actions but I think it does go a long way to explain why people are doing this. Society has left them out in the cold and somebody is going to pay.
Their actions are sick and wrong but we can't just throw up our hands in the air and not try to reach a solution. We can't just pause after reading about another attack and in most ways no longer be shocked.
When I first saw the headline I paused for a minute. But sadly I have to say I was not in total shock.. It would be a stretch to say that this kind of an occurrence is common. It would also be a stretch to say that this type of assault is no longer expected.
I have a hard time rationalizing why someone would choose to do this. No matter how difficult and hard things are in your life, why would you inflict such pain on other people and their families, none of whom were the source of your problems?
After Columbine I had come to a conclusion. It was simply that somethings you can't explain and that there is simply evil in this world that will at times manifest itself. I don't know if I believe that entirely anymore. It seems to me there is a certain percentage of our population that feels left out and ostracized. I am not trying to be insensitive here but the people who are pulling the trigger aren't the prom king and they aren't the football hero. They are the ones that are picked on at school or who are economically powerless. It certainly does not justify their actions but I think it does go a long way to explain why people are doing this. Society has left them out in the cold and somebody is going to pay.
Their actions are sick and wrong but we can't just throw up our hands in the air and not try to reach a solution. We can't just pause after reading about another attack and in most ways no longer be shocked.
posted by The Kid at 12/07/2007
1 Comments:
Kid - good post (sorry I'm so late in commenting.)
A good proportion of our population gets thrown away by the time they reach high school and college. We tell them that, whether socially, academically, behaviorally, whatever, they're not good enough to be around the rest of us... but we don't have many ideas as to what we can do to make them feel wanted, accepted, loved, valued.
I'm not one of the folks who says that we shouldn't apply the F where an F has been earned in a class, or lock up the murderer. At the same time, if we are going to preach that every human life is sacred and has value, we cannot afford to throw away the square pegs who do not fit in the round holes.
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