.....by Richard Koss
To Ann Pottle Dolin,
Read your well written and thought provoking poem, full of compassion and concern, not only for the victums but for the young killer, as well.
Personally, I choose not to dwell on this, yet another tragic incident involving young people. People die every day for all kinds of crazy reasons. So many young kids are killed in auto accidents, and many of the accidents are a result of alcohol consumption. A waste of life. But the loss of lives in car accidents should be no less tragic than lives lost because of rage or the use of weapons. For centuries, grief stricken parents have been asking the same questions, the same whys. They will still be asking, a couple hundred years from now.If you haven't used theIn today's society, these incidents are sometimes inadvertently, but too often, deliberately exploited by the media, psychologists, and parental experts. We just keep on talking about them, reliving the tragedies, trying to find blame while administering guilt. Some people want to ban all weapons. They think that will stop the shootings. Anyone who wants to buy a gun will always find a source. Rage will always be present in some people. There will always be bullies. There will always be kids who are ridiculed, who are depressed, neglected, misunderstood. There will always be those who refuse to accept help even if you offer it.
All the new legislation, the endless support programs, the counselors, the security guards, the teachers and parents, none of these elements can accurately predict or prevent the behavior of anyone hell bent on errupting violently. When will the proponents of a big brother, protective, government controlled, society learn that you will never prevent some people from doing bad and stupid things?
One of the ways to reduce the incidence of this type of violence is to stop sensationalizing these crimes, and encouraging yet another, obscure, insecure, frightened and angry youth, to become reborn as the center of national attention.
Of course, we can't ignore this behavior completely, and we must keep trying to learn how to anticipate and prevent this type of violence. But it is also dangerous to overlegislate and establish such strict rules and sanctions that would make us overreact to verbal and visual, behavioral symptoms, causing us to disrupt the lives of the majority of citizens, who are rational and law abiding. If that comes about, these young murderers will have killed more than people. They will have killed our spirit to trust one another and speak and act as a free people.
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