"Of the 76 million children currently residing in the United States an estimated 46 million
can expect to have their lives touched by violence, crime, abuse, and
psychological trauma this year".
46 million?
So many people seem to live on speed dial. Mark Zuckerberg's vaunted motto - "move fast
and break something; if you're not breaking something you're not moving fast enough" -
says it all. Never mind if what you are breaking are
hearts, homes, and families. Compete and beat, take and violate. Hatred rules and bigotry
runs rampant. The children in Connecticut are but the latest victims of a society that has
lost its way, a Society of the Disconnected.
There is a toxic atmosphere in the US today, from the disarray in Washington to the
priorities given to corporations over individuals. The recurrence of horrific shootings
is not accidental. It is endemic in a Society of the Selfish. The United
States of Arrogance is eating itself up alive. One religion hates another. Law is secondary
to acquisition. Order is treated with contempt. Win, win, win. Kill kill kill.
We saw what can happen in Connecticut when kill kill kill explodes.
We used to think that
we could solve any problem, cross any hurdle. Just move fast enough, think fast enough, act fast
enough, and all will be well. There is an alka seltzer for every ill, so long as you
market it before someone else does.
But some problems can't be solved and this inserts a nagging sense of helplessness into our outsized pride. Yes a better system of control over assault weapons and magazine sizes might help. Yes a nation-wide training of teachers to recognize students that are apt to erupt into
violence might help. Yes a decrease in the glorification of violence, in video games, in tv programs, in movies, might help. And honoring
the honorable rather than rewarding the greedy might help.
But there are conditions that we are not yet equipped to understand, and children that society is not yet able to acknowledge as dangerous. Toughest of all are the decisions that some parents are confronted with when their child exhibits one of these poorly-understood personality disorders. Would you want to be the parent of one of these children? Could you
make that awful decision to have your child committed? On the other hand, if you could not face the
decision and got a phone call from another Sandy Hook Elementary School how could you
face yourself?
Before you move fast and break things, slow down and try to make things better. Honor your
local fireman, not your local Wall Streeter. Raise the salaries of teachers, not CEO's.
Reward the nurses, not just the famous Specialists. Stop texting and start talking.
Is it really necessary to take 80 executives to a luxury resort on Half Moon Bay for a weekend? How many paramedics could
live decently on what that boondoggle cost? Above all, ask yourself: is this the country I want
for my kids?
The poet Bob Hicok recently wrote, " the dead have no ears, no answering machines that we
know of, still we call".
c. Corinne Whitaker 2012