The Elephant in The Middle of The Room

Something happened this week, in Virginia. Something terrible. I’ve spent several days trying to pull my thoughts together on the subject, because I felt that it had to be addressed. Otherwise it would just be sitting there, waiting, like that proverbial elephant.

As always, the best place to start is with the facts. At about 7Am, in a Virginia Tech dorm, Seung-Hui Cho shot and killed two people, then left the scene. Two hours later, the gunmen entered a class building and killed 31 more before taking his own life. Between shootings he tok the time to record and mail a manifesto of sorts to NBC, his way of explaining how things had come to this.

My friend DOF talks about this extensively on his blog. You should read the whole post, but there’s a piece that I’d like to share with you now.

Whenever there is a mass tragedy, there is a wave of sympathy followed by a much larger wave of speculation as to how such a thing can be prevented. Legislators will be grandstanding in front of cameras and microphones, pretending that they know the cause and the solution. TV and radio pundits will go on long after we will all wish they’d just shut up. It will be blamed on lack of gun control, too much gun control, on godlessness, or on religion gone haywire. The finger will point at television, video games, rock music, “goth”, food additives, schools, parents, drugs, alcohol. The solution will be the opposite of all those things, no matter how incompatible they are, plus more guards, more surveillance cameras, tougher laws, and above all, prayer. Lots and lots of prayer, especially in the schools.

He’s right, of course. Everyone will be looking for something to blame this on, something to point a finger at. The issue will be politicized, the drums will start beating.

And it’s all hooey.

Because people don’t want to place the blame where it really belongs. With us.

Seung-Hui Cho was just a kid. A kid with some mental problems, difficulities communicating. A troubled soul. He had problems with kids. He had problems with teachers. He had problems with religion.

At some point along his downward spiral, someone should have reached out, pushed past his defenses. A peer, a teacher, a counsler, a family member, a spiritual leader. Somebody should have made a connection with this kid before he became a monster.

Make no mistake, that is what he became. A monster. A despicable creature that destroyed hundreds of lives.

But it didn’t have to be that way.

How many more monsters are out there, waiting for their moment of fire? How many more of these creatures have we already made? Can they be reached? Can we do anything to prevent more monsters from being forged?

Don’t misread that. I’m not talking about getting rid of video games or violent movies. I’m talking about making a connection, treating those that are different then us as human beings. Being nice.

Once again, DOF sums it up well…

I suggest kindness.  Just random acts of kindness, small words of encouragement to others at unexpected times for no reason at all.  It won’t prevent events like this from happening.  But it will shine a light against the darkness.  Kindness is our most powerful rebellion against tragedy.