Orlando. Baton Rouge. St. Paul. Dallas.
These are American city names. I'm sure you know that. These are places where death is happening, where families are being torn apart, and where hearts are breaking. I understand the inevitability of natural disaster. Hurricane Katrina, the Haiti earthquake. We cannot control those things, but rather only do what we can to be prepared. I understand war, in that countries will war. Soldiers will war. And yes, it's all in the name of some god or belief systems that clash together violently.
But these American shootings? The mass murder of people in a nightclub? Undereducated police officers with quick fingers killing Americans? Snipers with a plan murdering police who are attempting to keep the peace? All of this shit is horrendous and backwards. The brutality this nation inflicts upon itself is astounding and it's now at the point where I almost can't believe it's real. Forget watching television. I won't do it. I'll read news stories if I trust the outlet, but when it comes down to it, CNN and Fox are going to report the same thing. Americans are killing Americans.
Maybe it's education. It feels wrong to point a finger at the American education system given all of the teachers making such little money and working with larger classes every year. So I'm not going to blame teachers. It has to be the curriculum, and what we learn. Maybe I needed to know about Beowulf and perhaps learning algebra was important. It was what I didn't learn that has come to hurt me. I didn't learn enough about peace, community, understanding, grace, mercy, and hope. Is that not something teachers should be putting into each and every class? We can't rely on parents to teach those things simply at home. There needs to be a larger effort to educate young people on how to be better older people. The idea is huge and minds greater than my own surely could start to work on this. Peace isn't just going to arrive. Understanding needs to precede it.
The killing needs to stop. The shootings must end. There are so many other tragedies that are unavoidable. We need to get this one right.