Saturday, December 15, 2012

violence and death in America

Anyone who has read my blog probably knows about my many issues. My past as a violent, confused and angry child. My life surviving with undiagnosed and ignored severe depression. Relentless panic and anxiety attacks. All the things that people often attribute to those that snap and kill. Yet it's never been a thought with me. To harm myself, yes, I've often thought about that as a way out. To harm others though, never. Especially children.

What has happened to the human species in the last 20 years? We've always been violent. History is filled with atrocities, wars, mass genocide and other horrors. Hitler killed how many? We dropped nuclear weapons on Japan in the name of peace. Horrors of humanity indeed. But the things happening today. Murdering of children. By strangers and by family. I find this truly disturbing. I simply can't wrap my feeble mind around it. To walk into a school and murder 26 people? What possible reason to do this?

To kill in rage I suppose is somewhat understandable. Some of the previous school shootings I can at the least somewhat grasp what made those murderers snap. They had reason. At least in their own minds.  But what made them actually do it? This didn't happen 20 years ago. When one kid was mad at another they went out back, smacked one another around a bit and moved on. People didn't need to worry about getting murdered at school, or walking down the street. Or going to the store. It just wasn't an issue. So what changed?

People want to blame it all on the guns, But there is so much more to it than that. There has to be a cause of so much crazy. Crazy is the only answer. You don't murder your own children while sane. You don't shoot people in a theatre of school while sane. But then, my mind has been in some very dark places and it never crossed my mind to murder anyone. So what is so different in these people?

Remember the victims and not the victimizer:

1. Charlotte Bacon (DOB 2/22/06)

2. Daniel Barden (9/25/05)

3. Rachel Davino (7/17/83)

4. Olivia Engel (7/18/06)

5. Josephine Gay (12/11/05)

6. Ana M. Marquez-Greene (4/4/06)

7. Dylan Hockley (3/8/06)

8. Dawn Hocksprung (6/28/65)

9. Madeleine F. Hsu (7/10/06)

10. Catherine V. Hubbard (6/8/06)

11. Chase Kowalski (10/31/05)

12. Jesse Lewis (6/30/06)

13. James Mattioli (3/22/06)

14. Grace McDonnell (11/04/05)

15. AnneMarie Murphy (07/25/60)

16. Emilie Parker (5/12/06)

17. Jack Pinto (5/6/06)

18. Noah Pozner (11/20/06)

19. Caroline Previdi (9/7/06)

20. Jessica Rekos (5/10/06)

21. Avielle Richman (10/17/06)

22. Lauren Russeau (6/1982)

23. Mary Sherlach (2/11/56)

24. Victoria Soto (11/4/85)

25. Benjamin Wheeler (9/12/06)

26. Allison N. Wyatt (7/3/06)
 
And this is just one example, the most recent.