“Another high school shooting!”
i was sitting in a typical american diner this morning waiting for my friend and half watching the news when this story came on.
a story or two later it was, “Another suicide bombing” and this time a double suicide bombing.
the question this raises in me is, ‘Does this event shock me?’
Do both of these events, as individual horrific events of destruction, not simply ‘the news’, trigger in me a revulsion and a pain, some kind of deep empathic groaning? Do they make me cry out, “WHY?” to God? Do they make me cry out, “Why?” to society? Do they make me sad? Does a little something die somewhere in the recesses of my soul?
Because it really should. There has to be something huger, more hectic, than just “Another…”
For the friends and family and other relatives of the victims [and even the killers] it is a whole lot more than “Another…” This one hit home. Does it need to be someone we know before it has the same effect for us? For me?
And why even write this? What difference is another blog post going to make? The answer for the most part is a huge zero. A bigger danger than “Another…” is definitely that our response is limited to social media type words and empty platitutes which make us feel like we’ve done something when in actual fact we’ve done maybe the opposite of something. We’ve gossiped it all up on to a page or screen and so we can pat ourselves on the back and feel like we’ve made a difference [How’s that Kony protest going, by the way?’] but really where is the change?
I’ll be honest. For me this is a reminder. Simply that. Not trying to change the world although that would be great and hopefully the more we think and wrestle and really dig into this stuff the more creative solutions or resolutions we can come up with to do something. But a reminder to me that this was a tragic event. Each one.
We can’t forget! We can’t let each isolated tragic incident become just another “Another…” Each new incident has a community or communities that are irreversibly affected. We have to join in the mourning every time. Not get dragged down by it, but we dare not become immune.
Remember. Remember. Remember. Then act. We have to move towards action.
Who here has an idea for where we go next?
[As i went to Google to get details for the shooting it turned out to have been a report linked to last week’s Santa Monica school shooting which can be found here. The suicide bombing took place in Damascus, Syria here.]
Irresistibly Fish 
While I agree with the heart and intention of this blog, I disagree with your conclusion. At least for myself. I HAVE to forget and ignore if I am to be any use at all in this world. I am naturally empathetic and sensitive to the suffering around me. But if I take in even the very selective fraction of pain and suffering fed up by the various media, I become depressed. In some ways this is a healthy reaction to Wrongness, but it will nearly always lead to an unhealthy, debillitating inaction. I’m not saying this is true for everybody, but it is for me. I avoid the “news” mostly these days. I do still have an underlying connective sadness to the vast ocean of human pain, and I hope this enables the action I do take in my day to day life.
I may have said something similar to this before in your comments. My forgettery is in prime condition 😉
hey yes you did, but maybe on one of Val’s posts so hopefully no-one will notice. I d hear what you are saying and I think there is huge value in not being overwhelmed by all the negative news [I generally try to use Tuesdays on my other blog to share positive life-giving stories to give those some more airplay as I think that is completely healthy] but i guess the main point I am trying to make here is we cannot reduce a terrible tragedy to a simple one liner that just adds it as another tick in a long list. If we do come face to face with an incident like this, there is value in not letting ourselves become completely desensitised to the point of being uncaring/unfeeling. But I do hear you and wonder if there is a middle ground or if each person needs to figure out what is healthy and helpful for them, and society.
Because maybe we need to get uncomfortable enough so that we will do something more?