Question:
How can we explain a tragedy like the Newtown shootings?
Answer: The only explanation for
what took place on December 14, in the Sandy Hook community of Newtown,
is insanity. A new height, surpassing even Colorado’s Columbine High
School massacre in 1999, was reached in the affluent town of some
30,000 inhabitants. Children are not the usual targets of violence in
“peace time.”
When you add into this mix widespread mental illness, family
dysfunction, drug addiction, the real and perceived fear of crime, and
the easy availability of lethal weapons, widespread violence becomes a
certainty. The ongoing “shoot ‘em up” Hollywood representations of the
cowboy and gangster myths have also profoundly imprinted the American
psyche. But only the insane will see children as the enemy and murder
them in cold blood. Only a deranged predator will vent his rage by
killing the weakest, most defenceless members of
society.
Not to be excluded from this tragic scenario is the fine line between
fantasy and reality. In news and entertainment media, the constant
exposure of impressionable children, bored, unstable, morally defective
adolescents and young adults to acts of violence, including the
gratuitous violence of video games, addicts masses of young users. Here
the message is the same: empower yourself by killing others.
Within the highly divisive and heated political debate in the U.S.
regarding weapons, the buzz-words “freedom”, “protect”, “lawful”,
“right to bear arms” and the sacro-sanct “American constitution” used
by both gun lobbyists and onside politicians enflame the rhetoric. The
result has produced anything but freedom. A fearful siege mentality
prevails in America. No one is safe from gun violence. Citizens have
become potential victims in their own towns, waiting for the next
attack.
Values education and remedial legislation will assist with the complex
problem of gun violence which must be checked. Planning for change must
be long-term and systematic. Lets us begin with children and youth. One
of the “core activities” of the Bahá’í community is a program to
educate our vulnerable junior youth (12-15), the adults of tomorrow.
The curriculum is available to everyone in the community irrespective
of religion. It provides a new framework for positive character
education and the rehabilitation of society. -
Jack
McLean
