Why

I wasn’t going to say anything on my blog about the tragedy in Newtown.  What can I say, that everyone else isn’t already  saying or feeling.   With school age kids in the house, I have avoided the news this weekend because I didn’t want to project my horror upon them.   They heard about it,  they were shocked and we moved on.

I don’t want to read about the parents and families grief.  I don’t want to see the photos of their pain.  I can imagine well enough and it makes me physically ill to think about it.

I think we can all agree that hurting children is the worst act you can do, no matter your mental health, reasons and so forth.  Sadly, humanities history is filled with atrocities against children for many excuses including war, religion, ethnic cleansing, to a simple message to the “enemy.”

And messages they are, especially now when the media does a great job of spreading that message for free.    People planning these deeds know full well how it will be received and how their acts will shake not only the immediate people affected but by every other person who happened to be watching TV, listening to the radio, and lets not forget the insatiable internet.

Traditional journalists have to work a lot harder to get a percentage of the populations interest when their twitter feeds are filled with real time reports.   Hence my avoidance of almost all media for the last couple of days.  I have been even loathe to read opinion pieces (hypocritical I know) because it all feels like we are giving the murderers exactly what they wanted.

On a daily basis the mainstream media glosses over the latest horrors from afar, we have become numb to the offhand death toll numbers in Syria, Afghanistan, and so on, as they scroll across our screens while MORE IMPORTANT news (closer to home) is blasted in our face eeking out the minutiae of LIVE REPORTING.

I am troubled that we are more horrified by deaths of children here rather than afar.  They all have parents who are left numb and alone.  We should be weeping for the world.  One that doesn’t seem to be getting any better.   21st Century and we are still killing each other and ourselves.   We look at the why’s..but they are only symptoms.  Gun Control, Mental Health, Religion, Media….it all blurs together.  People kill to get attention and now worse than ever when they have examples before them paving the way.

Modern media blames the needs of the hungry masses for how they handle awful events like Newtown, dialogue IS necessary.  But I don’t care what the talking heads have to say about it.  They are part of the problem. We need to at least TRY to solve what feels to be the growing need for mass execution for publicity.  I just can’t seem to build up enough belief in humanity that we WILL solve this.   But we have to try.

I am finding the sorrows of this planet to be totally overwhelming these days.  What will it take to stop all this.   I hope all those tiny lives are worth it.   Lets do more than remember them, lets do something for them.  Don’t feed the monsters anymore.