The Tragedy About Tradegies

Everyone was up in arms about the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting a few weeks ago -- with good reason. Who wouldn't be upset about some guy on a shooting rampage coming into an elementary school and killing little kids? It certainly wasn't the first time an incident like that happened, and it surely won't be the last. But it set off a firestorm of debates about gun control and the safety of our schools as well as outrage and anguish over yet another cold-blooded killer.

It seemed it was on every TV and radio station for a week straight, plastered all over the internet, on facebook, etc. Nobody could stop talking about it. It was like we were reliving all the other tragedies all over again: the Dark Knight Movie Shooter (recently), Virginia Tech Massacre (2007), Amish Killing Spree (2006), Elizabeth Smart Kidnapping (2002), 9-11 (2001), Columbine (1999), Oklahoma Bombing (1995), L.A. Riots (1992), -- just to name a few. The point is that the incessant media coverage and the constant rehashing of the story only served to incite more anger and mourning throughout the country. Almost like mob mentality, the unrelenting coverage by man and media continued to heighten emotions and demand answers to unanswerable questions: Why did God allow little children to be victims? What would make a man do something like this? What can we do to prevent this from happening in the future? Furthermore, all the public attention on the villain magnifies his infamy and emboldens other hapless individuals to bring down the ship along with themselves.

While I agree that it was indeed tragic, what sickened me the most was the endless talk about it, as if this sort of thing wasn't happening every day in our own backyards! The day of the shooting, my little Megan came home crying, not because she'd heard of the massacre, but because her friend had to move in with her aunt because her mother had just been killed in her own home. Is everyone so blinded by the big stories that they forget about the people hurting right in front of them?

Stop trying to find an answer to something that can't be undone. It happened. Mourn and move on. People have hated me for saying so, but I still believe our motto for 9-11 should stop being "we will not forget." Maybe we should forget. Let go of the anger and the outrage. For surely when we say we will not forget, it is not the loved ones lost that we remember, but the bad guys that took them from us. What makes me angry is that our society is proud to hold grudges. We don't learn compassion from these tragic events. Instead, we learn to hate the haters.

In its wake was Christmas. Fortunately, the media frenzy faded as the materialism of the season rose to choke it out. Even more tragic than the need to explain and identify the abomination is the fact that the finger pointing was in the wrong direction. Here it is, the time of year that we celebrate our Savior's birth and the correlation never crosses our minds. "To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world," Jesus said to Pilate (John 18:37). Let us now point our fingers where they belong. Not at the offender but at the forgiver, the one who suffered the pain of the criminal as well as the victims. Let it go and turn your hearts to the compassion of those who reside within the circle of your own life.

And in despair I bowed my head:
"There is no peace on earth," I said,
"For hate is strong and mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good will to men."

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
“God is not dead, nor doth He sleep,
For Christ is here; His Spirit near
Brings peace on earth, good will to men.”