What pain and anger can cause a child not just to fantasize darkly in desperate moments but to kill others on a calculated rampage? His grandparents. His fellow students. Himself. Perhaps revenge on a world of defeated dreams that never understood his depths of despair or the danger of his anger? The funerary dirge is of inconsolable loss, bewilderment at those who compose the school system who didn't see this dark and bloody volcano brewing, anger at the teen himself, for pelting his fury in deathly bullets extinguishing many lives in his wake, anger at our culture of anger, its endless portrayals of violent death on the news or movie screens, and sorrow, sorrow for the loss of so many young people, for the lives that they will never have.
In our culture of violence, with its readily available guns, what we most need to fear is ourselves, our neighbours, the breakdown of a fellow citizen who lives out the celluloid glory of infamy with terrifying impunity---such bullets tear through the reality of our lives.
My deepest condolences to all those of the Red Lake Indian Reservation who have lost loved ones in this tragedy.
So...is the world any nuttier than it was 60 years ago? I guess I could go back further if I was an historian...but I'll just rely on the time I've spent here. Answer? Unfortunately not! How sad.
ReplyDeleteGiven what is happening with the Schiavo case nothing surprises anymore. Jeffrey Hull(jwhull.blogspot.com) has a very compassionate and humane poem on his site as to Theresa Marie. Perhaps he'll touch on this "event" as well.
If I sound sarcastic or bitter or tired..............................well.
I also share in your sympathy Brenda. Gosh.
lhombre, thank you for your thoughtful and impassioned comment. Ah, yes, you're right, the world isn't any different, and maybe in some ways better than decades ago, centuries ago, millenias ago. Maybe it wouldn't actually make any difference at all - but if that kid had a massive breakdown, a psychotic episode of the huge proportions that he obviously had, and did not have access to a gun, what would have happened? Maybe everyone would still be alive and he'd be getting the help he needed? When violence is the main mythology of a culture and guns easily available, then when there is a massacre like this we must look in our own dark mirror... I shall go and read Jeffrey's site now. *hugs*
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