There appears to be a steady flow of school shootings these days. Columbine, Virginia Tech, and NIU come to mind. Each is another horrible bloodbath, and they keep happening again and again. The answer is always the same. The killer was mentally ill. The killer had a past filled with problems. The killer stopped taking his medication. The killer wrote naughty stories. But every once in a while, at least someone else gets the blame. That gun shop dealer shouldn’t have sold the killer the guns!
It is time for us, individually and as a society, to start accepting responsibility. We are the cause of school shootings. We are the sickness. I have no proposed remedy, but I can point out a few instances of the daily madness in our lives that we have all bought into. Perhaps realizing the cause is the first step.
We have become fast moving automatons, going to and fro at lightning speed. If a gas driven engine isn’t currently propelling us down the highway, buzzers and beepers, electronic sounds, are guiding our every move. Wherever I may be, should my cell phone sound an alert, I will shut out current company and answer it. Or I am typing and sending emails, plugged into a computer through a mouse and keyboard all day, inside while the sun is shining outside. In the evenings I sit hypnotized before a large screen television. Always am I tied to a machine, and it is guiding me. I am not using it. It is using me. Should I open my eyes and unplug for a moment, or get out of the car and start walking, I will get a taste of reality that requires I begin taking medication. Should I quit taking my medication, I will become a school shooter.
If we are strong enough to endure this mechanized beehive or anthill long enough to finish school, get a job, and make money, it will never be quite enough. The system is set up to squeeze every drop of blood from my veins. Women will prey upon me, seduce me with sex, and trick me into marriage. Then my money will not be enough, so I will start living on credit. It starts with car payments, then a mortgage, and then a second mortgage. I am pinched into a vice. Half my income goes to paying the interest on my debt. Paycheck to paycheck I live, though I have a two-story house in the suburbs, a Hummer, and a Honda Accord. If I can make it to age 65, I will get social security and can reverse mortgage my home. None of the money I’ve ever earned will be mine. It has all been sucked into the banks because I have lived on borrowed time and money all my life. Maybe the children will come home for Christmas.
And this is why there is madness. This is why we are the real culprits. This is why we have School Shooters.
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