|
A Letter to Columbine, Santee, Perl and Paduka
A letter to Columbine,
I have been troubled of late by the aftermath of Columbine, Pearl and Paduka.
By troubled I mean torn to the point of torture. Not having lost a child in a senseless tragedy I cannot know your pain; only empathize and weep for your loss.
What brings a child to the point of homicidal rampage? How did this come to be in our “civilized society”?
There are those who with the best of intentions would act on the outrage which they feel over this senseless violence.
There are those who, motivated by the fear of losing their own loved ones, would agree with almost ANY explanation that might set their hearts at ease. These nod their heads at regulations aimed at solving this problem, not once truly asking themselves, “Is this WHY it happened”.
How can you look a grieving mother in the eye and tell her that a gun did not kill her child?
How can you defend 2nd Amendment rights in her moment of anguish without seeming selfish and unconcerned by her pain? How can you argue against gun control; a conspirator in this gun culture that, in her mind, has ripped her life to shreds?
How can you be anything in her eyes but a demon that threatens her remaining loved ones?
You cannot. Emotion is blind and demands swift action. To say the problem is complex and will take time to identify and solve is not good enough. She wants security again; she wants her life back again and the breakdown of the nuclear family is too detached from the violence, which took her child, took her dreams.
So we take the quick and easy route, the safe way, the politically correct path. We blame it on guns. We blame it on the ready availability of guns to children. We choose to ignore the fact that up into the early part of this century, most children had access to guns and did NOT go on violent rampages.
We ignore the facts because we want the pain to go away. The pain will NOT go away Columbine.
The guns did NOT kill your children, CHILDREN killed your children.
Would that I could make it go away. I would round up all of the guns myself and melt them down if I thought that it would help. I know that it WON’T help.
The absence of guns did not stop the young boy in Great Britain from smashing his playmate’s skull in with a brick as he pleaded beside the railroad tracks.
Guns had nothing to do with the Tylenol poisonings that hurt and scared so many of us.
Guns did not make Oklahoma City nor did they create the Unabomber; loneliness did. Loneliness, and disenchantment with one’s lot in life. These are the factors that led to the pain of Columbine, your pain, America. Too many lonely and disillusioned people, many without the guidance required to aid them in coping with the smallness that most of us feel at one time or another in our lives. The powerlessness which finds its twisted, homicidal release in senseless acts of violence against illusionary oppressors, or defenseless victims.
Teach your children well, America. Love them with all of your heart. Protect them, not through legislation and regulation, but through experience, guidance and loving discipline.
Don’t leave a child behind America, for it is the lonely, outcast child that comes up behind us and rips out our hearts. With no dreams of their own and no hope for the future, they turn on our dreams and snatch them away.
My heart belongs to you Columbine, your grief has touched me deeply, but America and its future remain and always shall remain my one true love.
With tenderest regards,
R.Dafremen
|
Linear Mode
