Tuesday 18 December 2012

fear

The Friday shooting in Connecticut is making me angry today. Well, not the shooting but events surrounding it. I probably should be angry about the shooting itself but the shooter is too dead and too distant and most likely too in need of pity for me to be angry with him.

What am I angry about? I'm angry about all the anti-religion I am coming across. I have faith. I try to live it. I dont have all the answers, I dont try to pretend I have the answers, I dont know why a loving God allows such as this and I am happy to say I dont know so I am more than tired of the aggression that comes from some quarters. Save your anger and use it for something productive.

I am also angry (admittedly it's irrational) because my exposure to the internet today is full of parents talking about how hard it was to send their kids off to school. Really? one man goes into one school and does a horrible thing and people think it's going to happen again today, to their child? Tonight those same people will be on facebook defending their right to bear arms. It could never be their gun that is used for a massacre. It could never be them who accidentally kills their child or their child who accidentally kills his brother.

People are asking why their school is business as usual, why is Friday's tragedy not acknowledged, why they havent received an email from the school ......
for what? to assure them it wont happen at their school? that is not a promise that can be made, no matter how remote the possibility.

Somebody says that it's not gun laws that should be reviewed, it is school security and at the same time people talk about how to make their kids feel safe.
What kind of messages do we send our children when their schools have metal detectors and steel bars and security guards? Are we telling them that school is safe when we do that? Are we gifting them a life free from fear? When we hug them tighter and walk them to school the day after a tragedy are we showing them that they are safe or are we showing them that we are afraid and that they should be too?

When people have guns in their homes it is because of fear, fear that we might need to defend our families. Friday's murders almost certainly were caused by some kind of fear, fear that life would never get better or fear of never being understood or fear of unrealistic expectations. Something.


The world is not always a safe place but we need to try to act like it is; if we face the world with trust and belief in people we subtly ask them to rise to that expectation, if we face the world with fear and dread we will see problems that aren't there and we might respond to imaginary problems with real action and when we do that we are only separated from Adam Lanza by the degree of our response.

As for me, I suppose I need to figure out exactly why I am so annoyed by the innocently fearful responses of a few of nameless, faceless Americans.......

10 comments:

  1. Oh Kylie,
    You have no answers, I have no answers but both of us are grieving for this senseless loss- despite you having faith and me having none.
    I would agree with you that gun laws are a big issue - but we have never grown up in a culture where the right to bear arms is a given. For which I am grateful.
    Our own gun laws were tightened (despite opposition) after the Port Arthur massacre and we have had no repeat of gun related tragedy on that scale since. Which has to be a good thing.
    I am sorry that you are feeling under attack. We are not all pinning senseless blame at the door of all believers. I do not believe that anyone will have the answer to why a poor, sad (and I would think sick) man chose to act in that way.

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  2. First let's get God out of the equation. God had absolutely nothing to do with this, God is not human and this is all human caused.

    America ain't OZ you guys passed gun reform in 12 days back in the 90's 12 days from now this will just be another mark on the board and people will have gone back to shining their new guns (yes gun sales rose again Friday afternoon and on Saturday.

    We will have politicians talking about it and soon enough the NRA will star to repost on their facebook page which they scrubbed clean except for one post about signing a petition for gun control.

    And life in America will move on. In Detroit we will have over 365 murders this year, most under 20 years old and almost all by gunshot. No one mourns those though because that is expected by them who do not live here.

    I don't know what the schools will do any different but I will find out tomorrow when I go into tutor my two 1st graders.

    We have our 2nd amendment which for well over 250 years was misinterpreted but in 2010 George W Bush' supreme court extended it to mean individual gun ownership.

    Americans will like Obama said cling to their religion and their guns which to many is their religion. Am I sad by the murder of 26 more humans...nope. I expected it or something like it. Call me callous but I live in an area where a 16 year old catching a bullet in his head is last weeks news, 4 people found executed 8 streets up is barely a news story and a carjacked and murdered 20 year old found 3 streets up is only still talked about because he was white.

    No one could have prevented this except his mother, whom he also murdered, she knew he was mentally ill and she thought if she had enough guns she could kill him before he killed her...oops. Bad decision on her part eh?

    When nation wide in America when the money started having to be stretched the very and I mean very first thing to go was the mental health services budget, now they simply incarcerate the mentally ill in prisons.

    @0 years ago the Governor of Michigan closed down every mental hospital, walk in clinic and source of help and dumped 36,000 ill people on the streets of the two largest cities.

    America may dry shame shame and whine whine for this week but Santa comes next week, how many new guns do you suppose will be under the trees? Plenty. If 1 gun is good to have 15 are better.

    That is the truth of America and gun violence. 40,000 gun deaths a year is just another form of population control in America.

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  3. At the end of the day, it was just a tragic chain of human errors that caused the massacre. Unsuitable people having access to guns, poor security at the school, someone with mental health problems running amuck. But I guess upset parents are bound to have all sorts of inappropriate reactions. As you say, probably based on fear. Also on uncertainty and protectiveness. If some of those reactions are aimed at you, I should try not to take them personally but recognise what lies behind them.

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  4. Nick...just one comment, the school doors were locked with inside push bars in case of the need for an emergency exit.

    This man fired through the mesh embedded door glass to gain access.

    The school itself even had done lock down drills so the kids and teachers would have an idea of what to do (and they did it) in case of emergency. If there is no culpability anywhere for once it is not with the school. They did everything right except have an armed guard at the door to frisk kindergartners through 5th graders for weapons.

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  5. Fair enough, Walking Man, I take back my criticism of the school. Over on this side of the pond, I wasn't aware of those details. Hard to see what else the school could have done.

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  6. EC
    thanks for your kind words. i seemed to be surrounded by angry people making silly statements and it got under my skin so you really made a difference :)

    walking man,
    i am so very sorry that so many young people are lost to guns every day, sorry that it effects minorities, sorry that not many seem to care. the fact that is it so utterly needless and constant while people use idiotic justifications for the status quo makes my blood boil.

    nick,
    since i have already used such inflammatory language i might as well say i find it very hard to dismiss this event as a chain of errors. i see it as symptom of extreme illness on the part of the individual and gross arrogance and selfishness on the part of the larger society ie.all the people who dont want to give up their guns.

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  7. Your last sentence said it all Kylie " All those people who don't want to give up their guns " !!
    Am I the only one thinking "not again" every time I hear the inseparable terms of " Gun massacre " and " America " ? I watch on increduously as they interview people on the street that say " If we had more guns we could defend ourselves against this " Really ? More guns ? Dumbfounded .

    ( hey there hope you are well !!)

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  8. Fee!!!!!!

    I've missed you and lost your email in a great IT disaster haha

    How is it all?

    taikylie@yahoo.com.au

    the attitude to guns is astounding and i have had to switch off from it because i get really mad. homicidal, maybe?

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  9. " I'm angry about all the anti-religion I am coming across."

    Then come to America. The NRA (the major gun lobby) says that the problem is that we don't have enough guns. Hire guards with assault rifles to mingle with school children, and arm every adult who isn't insane so that the bad guys will be afraid to mess with anyone. Likewise, the religious people say that we need more religion. They say that when we threw God out of school (by banning school-sponsored prayer in the early 1960s), we invited Satan in. Now, God is punishing us because we rejected him.

    More guns and more religion, what could be wrong with that formula? I mean, look at how well it has worked out in the Middle East.

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  10. snow,
    i have calmed down since i wrote this.
    the commentary of the religious right, that this is punishment for rejecting God, is one of the more stupid statements of religious people and you are entitled to be angry.
    my point is that there is no justification in getting mad at religious people in general just because some of them are idiots.

    Q: How many NRA spokesmen does it take to change a lightbulb?

    A: More guns!

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