Tragedy...AgainWhat are we going to do if we can't protect our own children? This is the third time in just less than one year that I've posted this journal, and I don't get it. Personally, I don't think the media should cover these stories. It puts too much attention on the killer and suppositions as to why he did it and where did we go wrong. Granted, some may argue that it opens a dialogue about "mental illness" and what can we do to prevent these tragedies; but, I'll tell you this right now...it does nothing. People will do what they want to do no matter how many barriers we put up to prevent them from doing so. I don't mind the dialogue...I think it's healthy and it's good; I do mind, however, copious amounts of media attention speculating as to intentions. This killer achieved his ultimate aim...the media attention. Let's not indulge this (please excuse me here everyone, I apologize) monster f*ck*r. My original thoughts below regarding VA Tech could, sadly, be applied again. My heart and my thoughts are with those at NIU...(I had originally posted this on MySpace on April 21, 2007...I hate that I had to bring it back again).
The Virgina Tech Tragedy...(April 21, 2007) Well, it's been a week since the VA Tech tragedy. Following this tragedy, there have already been two newsworthy threats in my little neck of the woods alone. First, at the UofM where my sister attends school (a bomb threat in the building she has her classes in) and a supposed "hit list" and threats at my nephew's high school. Additionally, the great town I live in had a murder during the daytime-noontime hour that is still, as of yet, unsolved. This is just in my little neck of the woods. Horror is nothing compared to what goes on everyday in the world. The real world is far more vicious and evil than any horror movie monster that any normal person could conjure up. There are no plots; there are no characters; there is no clean and neat permanent ending. There is just the random brutality that happens every day, every where with no rhyme or reason to it. So, I spend a lot of time in the world of horror; and despite everything, I spend my time in the real world trying to be a good person, trying to deflect the cruelty I hear and read about everyday by being hopeful regarding the innate goodness of man. No matter how much the news media will cover what happened at VA Tech, there will never be a logical explanation that any sane person will understand. Suffice it to say, this guy was EVIL; and he carried out his evil plan and now is dead and gone. So, let's stop giving him the media attention he more than likely wanted. Let's keep believing in the good in the world and the compassion of the human spirit. Let's offer our prayers and thoughts to those that now have to deal with these tremendous voids in their lives and continue to believe that collectively our compassion and belief in our fellow man will continue to squash the evil that wanders around everyday, in every town, on every block.
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It really wouldn't be that hard to do. Values could come from many different sources... things that shaped our own lives when we were young; spirtual things if a religious family; our success (and failures, being honest); even silly pranks that we may have pulled at a young age (this from J.R., who's reading this with me)... it's your own choice here.
Values are not chuckling over the latest episode of Family Guy or The Simpsons, or who was the best talent on American Idol. If one wants to find values to discuss from television, there's always the Discovery Channel, A&E, the History Channel and such.
Right now one of our local channels is running the film Hotel Rwanda, the true-life story of Paul Rusesabagina, a hotel manager who housed over a thousand Tutsi refugees during their struggle against the Hutu militia in Rwanda, when almost 1,000,000 Rwandans where massacred in a 100 day period. You can see the trailer here, but it's a pretty brutal subject.
My son had seen the previews for this film, we talked about it (I've seen it before), and it was his choice to watch... and yes, we will discuss it later. It's been called an African Schindler's List, another film that he's already seen. And yes, this one will help shape his own values.
We agree on many things and differ on others, for he's always been encouraged from a very young age to not follow the crowd, but to shape his own opinions, his own sense of values.
Without values, we end up with situations like the tragedy we saw at Virgina Tech and the others that we've been seeing in the news. And values like this have to be taught from home, and not from our school systems.
It takes just a few extra minutes each day to do this, that's all.