Why?
As a mother stares at her child’s empty bed tonight, we all watch our screens. We flip through our feeds watching the horror of another tragedy. We see flickers of brave police stepping over a child in a pink coat. We watch as they run through hallways lined with brightly colored lockers. We watch the media and our politicians taking serendipitous advantage of tragedy, red-faced and screaming folly from behind their podiums for all to see. We watch protests being streamed on social media by influencers in their spectacularly contoured make-up, no doubt taking regular breaks to grab caramel mocha lattes.
And as we recover from another devastating mass killing event, we look at the each other through screens, and on occasion, in person, and we ask each other…
Why?
Why are our neighbors and families so sick? Why are we sick? Why is our fellow man in such pain they are willing to slaughter innocent children?
Why?
We blame each other. It is the Republican party and their guns, it is the Democrat party and their lack of guns, it is the schools, it is the parents… we find ourselves pointing fingers. It is the decline of the middle class and need for two income households, the rise of technology, the decrease in organized spirituality as a community connector, the culture of extreme “want” as the spire of social media, mental and physical health presenting as a for profit business, inequity disguised as equity, toxic food and pollution, an education system in total disarray with schools as a parental substitute, monopolistic political corruption with blatant hypocrisy and untenable terms, and/or the sardonic denigration of free speech masked as woke social contagion.
We are so busy fighting class wars, race wars, gender wars, environmental wars, diet wars, water wars, style wars, and every war we can as a facilitator of uniqueness, we can’t quite see that we are, quite simply, a society at war… with ourselves. And just as stepping over mentally ill homeless members of our communities to buy our latest iPhone have become normalized, it is clear we have hit a breaking point.
We are no longer able to see what is right in front of us; and I don’t just mean wide-spread war-mongering, a teetering economy, fentanyl, untethered AI, and a dangerous decrease in the global birthrate, I mean the disintegration of the physical and mental health, and moral well-being of ourselves and communities. We are reaping the consequences of a society that has lost our way.
At this time in history, we no longer respect the sanctity of life. We no longer attain to the goal of equity, fairness, and justice. We no longer enact the sense of humanity needed to thrive. We no longer adhere to a sense of moral integrity. And most importantly, due to this, we have cheated our children out of the rigorously free and SAFE educational experience they deserve.
Why, indeed.
But, beyond the why, what can help? In the end, as a country, we must return to a place where we all have access to pursue life, liberty, and happiness while applying, in action and fortitude, justice for all.
And I am not necessarily avowing a regulated return to dogmatic religious institutions or propagandizing patriotism, but a return to the collective goal of good. Where we see the collective value of fighting to achieve our purpose, for not only self, but our fellow citizens. A return in integrity, honor, and caring. A proverbial return to a shared destination of… good. Because the truth is, beyond the characteristics we lack, we are also all part of the same universal beacon. We have the potential to achieve our destinies and propel each other to do the same. We have the capability for incredible light. We are our only hope.
As an individual, I am an educator, mother, female, and friend to many, but these things don’t define me. I am your neighbor. And you are my neighbor. And whether we are white, black, cat lovers, dog lovers, male, female, or LGBTQ, we are first and foremost, AGCTAGCT.
We are a human.
Let’s start acting like it.
Susan Spencer
Bowling Green
