May this be the day things change

Dare I comment on this?

I’m afraid if I start, I won’t stop and will devolve into screaming.

Somewhere, somehow, this madness has become a viable strategy for crackpots who aren’t happy with the number of dates they’ve gotten, what someone else worships, or worse because they woke up and decided they would like to try to kill people and see what that’s like.

When did that happen? How have we become so warped as a society that this is somehow a path that is even open for consideration? How has violence, extreme violence, become such a commonplace response to stimuli? And what’s more important, what can we do about it?

I could rage against the lax gun laws, and if you know me, you already know my thoughts on that. So, I won’t. I could rage against the ease with which people can get guns illegally (heck I could get one tomorrow and no one would be the wiser). And I’m not going to do that either. I could ponder the thought that I’ve been having that the paradigm of computer games and movies which show people dying again and again and then coming back like nothing ever happened has changed our consciousness and our awareness of death and its permanent status. (I read for enough young people who tell me that have contemplated “the suicide” [their words] as a method of dealing with their unhappiness to know that they aren’t truly aware that they won’t come back to a better, brighter future after they have died. They don’t seem to grok that it is permanent. And we spend time talking about that during their readings before I give them the number of the suicide hotline and the therapist I know who lives closest to them [yes, I keep a database].) There are any number of issues we could highlight as the reason so many choose this as a course of action.

But, in the end, it doesn’t matter because people are dead. Young people who had dreams and lives they wanted to live are gone. They will never have the chance to live their purpose. That is what matters. And what’s more, the guy who killed them is dead and that means we can’t study him and find out what transpired inside his twisted brain that made this an okay thing to do and apparently to promote on cchan beforehand. 

Because ultimately, that is what I want to know and change. I want to know why these people are doing it. I want to know what sort of issue inside them calls them to this extreme and abhorrent course of action. I can’t help thinking that if we figure it out, we will be able to change the future.

I hope so. I hope we can determine the root cause of this decision and figure out a way to avert it. Or it will get worse. 

I am an idealist. I want to see and live in a society where no one kills or is killed. I want to see us all work together to usher in a peaceful world. This morning that ideal feels much farther away. And yet I cling to hope.

My heart and thoughts are with those who are wounded and the families of those who were murdered. 

May this be the day things change.