The massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School is a teacher’s nightmare. It cast a pall over the Christmas holidays. It makes every parent with a school-age child pause and think, “Could this have happened to us?” Unfortunately, the answer is, “Yes”
Turning schools into forts will not solve the problem. Suspending a kindergartener from school for bring a toy gun to school will not solve the problem. Such stupid behavior is only likely to make matters worse. Perhaps there is no perfect solution. Yet we can all cry out, “This has got to stop!”
There is a tremendous urge to do something! I would suggest that we start with a prayer. We might humbly ask God, “Where, as a society, have we gone wrong? What should we be doing? How can we avoid this in the future? Please, God, show your compassion and mercy to the survivors. Comfort them in this hour of pain and loss.”
Our prayers take our minds away from our own concerns and our self-centeredness, and help us to see our connectedness. Not knowing any of the victims personally, we can share the pain and the loss. We can grieve with them because of our common humanity, and grieve we should. Our prayers can humble us and help us to perhaps see things more clearly.
Reaction to this cruel incident has come fast. The political Left wants to revisit banning guns. The political Right insists the incident would never have happened if it weren’t for banning prayer at schools and a display of the Ten Commandments. Could it be that both are very wrong? A quick look at history reveals that religious wars have been fought in the past and are still being fought. Posting the Ten Commandments has never stopped anyone from breaking all ten of them. Guns are convenient for killing people, but knives, baseball bats, hatchets, and hammers can do the job also. The problem lies in the mind. Do not we ask, “What was he thinking?” If anything, this horrible tragedy should wake us up to the fact that technology does not and cannot solve all our problems. Yet, as a Nation, we tend to glorify technology. We want improvement in math and science scores, as if that is all that is important.
What about the social sciences? Isn’t it important to know our history, so that we will not be continually making the same errors as a Nation?
What about the behavioral science? Shouldn’t we know how to live together without killing each other?
Finally, and perhaps because of health care cost and the obesity problem, teaching health is important. What about mental health? Isn’t it important too? Yet, how many states and other units of government have cut back on mental health care? Oh! They’re being fiscally frugal; for every dime they save they lose a dollar.
Yet, all these mass murderers were mentally unstable–in need of mental treatment. If someone is ill, we say, “Oh, I see you are not feeling well. You should see a doctor. Can I help? Let me make an appointment for you.” One would not let a friend suffer needlessly.
On the other hand, what do we do for someone we recognize is “losing his marbles?” Do we talk to them? Do we point them in the direction of help? Or, do we just ignore the situation? Mental pain is just as real as physical pain, and maintaining good mental health is just as important as physical health.
- So as a society, we need to stop pointing fingers and start keeping weapons of any kind out of the [hands of the] mentally deranged.
- We need to be able to recognize the mental symptoms and get those in need the help they need, before they kill others and themselves.
- We need, Left or Right, to get our political establishment to devote the resources necessary to solve the problem, instead of letting it get out of the news cycle so they can forget it.
Perhaps we all need to pray together.