Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Senseless Violence…


I try to be a positive person – to seek out the good at the center of a situation – To look at both sides and try not to let my vision of a event be clouded by the media hype – I try to “get” why someone does/did something and not judge them for how they act, most of the time they are only doing the best with what they have at the time. – But one thing that I am unable to grasp is the senseless violence that has become all too commonplace on our evening news. Yesterday’s horrific Virginia Tech shooting was the most recent example of an alarming trend in today’s society – Violence.

I don’t get it – you’re having a bad day – You get dumped, so you shoot your Girlfriend? You fail a class, so you shoot your Teacher? You don’t get along with the other kids in your school – you shoot them? You don’t like something someone else is doing, so you invade their country??? I don’t get it – when did this behaviour become the norm. How did someone ever think that any of this was alright? The only link between any of the above statements is “you” – so how can one person’s bad day get to impact so many lives – yesterday at least 33 lives were changed, as they sadly ended – but the impact of those tragic two hours will be played out by at least 33 families over every future Christmas, Easter and Sunday Dinner for the foreseeable future, it will be played out by the victims friends and families and by the students at VT for a lot longer.

I see a lot of the news has centered on the timeline, on what was done, what should have been done - basically on laying blame. I remember thinking that the same thing happened in Montreal last year, how the media were blaming Video Games, Rock Music, Rap Music, Gangs, Guns, Bullies, Race, Religon, Nationality, Teachers, Bad Relationships, Poor Role Models, The desensitization that comes when a country is at war, Society in General, Books, Art - anyone they could think of – This may be comforting to some to lay blame on something generic, something too big to be able to change, but personally I feel that the blame rests solely on that one individual who for some unknown reason saw this as a solution to his problems, he made the choice, all of those other things may have opened his eyes to this senseless act being a viable option, an unthinkable solution to a bad day – he was the one that made that catastrophic decision.

Most of the media is now figuring what schools should do next time this happens, does this sound as crazy to others as it does to me – We need to send the message to all of those that may be having bad days that this is not an option. No more violence, find an outlet, talk to your friends, get a hobby, go for a walk, find someone new, study harder, there’s always next season – nothing is as serious as it seems to be in the heat of the moment, nothing that is, except senseless violence…

1 comment:

Shaz said...

Hi I am new hear but totally agree it just sinks my heart.