Monday’s seemingly indiscriminate massacre at Chardon High School was a tragedy of the sort we’ve seen far too much of. Of that there can be neither doubt nor debate. The needless death of a child, or children in this instance, is something that should never be allowed to pass unexamined. If this was an rare, isolated incident, this discussion would be unnecessary. That this discussion is necessary only speaks to the depth of the problem and the urgent need to address it.
When I was in high school in northern Minnesota, I can remember friends keeping deer rifles in their lockers because they planned to go hunting after school. There’s little that illustrates to me how thoroughly our world has changed more than that story. Now, we and our children live in a world where violence and death can be visited upon us at a moment’s notice and for no discernible reason.
I don’t have the advanced degrees and the letters behind my name to be making broad, authoritative pronouncements about “Why?”. Why is this happening? Why are children so violent? Why does America seem to be progressively becoming a more cold, cruel, and harsh place? What I do have are powers of observation sufficient to recognize what the deliberate fraying of the social contract (with an eye towards dismantling it completely) is doing to us.
Once upon a time, while traveling in Greece, I and my traveling companion had dinner at a taverna in Athens. As we ate, drank, and took in the scene around, the place was filled with children running to and fro, seemingly without supervision. A closer look revealed that even though kids were everywhere, raising havoc as we ate, everyone there was looking out for the children. It wasn’t “I’ll watch my kids; you take care of your own damned kids.” The implied and accepted responsibility lay with everyone present, and so everyone watched out for the children.
I’ve found myself thinking about that night in Athens a lot over the past few days, and I’m saddened by the contrast I see around me these days. Our children are our future; I doubt anyone reasonable person would dispute that. What I’m wondering, though, is when we decided to lose our collective sense of responsibility to one another? When did compassion become “Socialism”? When did recognizing our obligation under the Social Contract mean acquiescing to an atheistic Liberal Hell in which the lazy and shiftless among us run amok while sucking at the public teat?
I don’t know if bullying was a factor in the Chardon tragedy. I do know that it has part of the equation in other school shootings, and I find myself wondering why parents and administrators have collectively turned a blind eye to the problem? A school should provide a safe environment where children can learn, not a house of horror in which a child is regularly terrorized and lives in constant fear. Why is the safety of our children not something that pushes all other educational priorities to the back of the bus? How is it that we can cluck disapprovingly at children shooting up their schools and yet take no real, concrete steps toward doing everything possible to ensure that our children feel safe and secure?
Time was communities looked out for their members. More and more, though, communities are becoming disconnected collections of individuals who look out for themselves and their own. We seldom know or care about our neighbors, and we’ve become programmed to assume the worst of those we deem to be different. Our ability and willingness to reach out and connect with compassion seems to be giving way to the cult of the individual.
We can change. We can make things better. We can stop this trend. I’m just wondering if we possess the resolve or the wherewithal to do it, or whether we’ll continue to accept the creation of a system in which no one looks out for anyone but themselves.
WE DESERVE BETTER…but do we have the will to demand and create something better?
