Just yesterday, I was reading an article about the tragic shooting of several children in an Amish school. This, on the heels of two other school shootings last week, one of which resulted in the death of a student, the other in the death of a principal.
I don’t know much about Amish society, I admit. I know they are peaceful folk who live quiet, simple lives, and generally do not agree with ownership of technology though they will use it on occasion.
Personally, I was blown away by the reactions of the Amish to the tragic violence that invaded their lives:
“The hurt is very great,” she said. “But they don’t balance the hurt with hate.”
<snip>
The Amish also have been reaching out to the family of the gunman, Charles Carl Roberts IV, 32, who committed suicide during the attack. Dwight Lefever, a family spokesman, said an Amish neighbor comforted the Roberts family hours after the shooting and extended forgiveness.
Amazing. If only those of all (or no) religious faiths were capable in their hearts of this kind of compassion and understanding, perhaps there would finally be peace.
At the end of the article (I don’t have a link to the exact one I was reading), there was a question posed to the reader : What scares you the most about the recent spate of school shootings? For a moment, I sat there thinking, before realizing that what scares me the most is almost surely not what scares most people reading that.
I don’t know how exactly to summarize, but part of what really scares me is this:
In the wake of school shootings in Wisconsin, Colorado and Pennsylvania during the last two weeks, a state legislator says he plans to introduce legislation that would allow teachers, principals, administrators and other school personnel to carry concealed weapons.
Yes, that is just what we need, genius. MORE fucking guns. Now people who want to shoot up a school won’t even have to sneak one in themselves, they can just borrow one from the teachers’ lounge.
Perhaps we should install razorwire fences along the perimeters of our schools too. Oh, and guard towers with snipers. To keep the kids safe, of course.
What the hell is wrong with these people? Will they not be satisfied until we are all holed up, fearful in our own solitary prisons we will call ‘home’?
These school shootings, and this Wisconsin lawmaker’s reaction is exactly what pisses me off about the ongoing War on Terror™. The reactions that we allow our society to have, the reactions that are dictated to us by those we call leaders are exactly the reactions the terrorists want (both those who blow up buildings, and those who shoot up schools).
This is not for me. I refuse to live in a world full of good people, cowering in fear of the few bad ones.
