Monday night in Toronto, Ontario, 2 died and 23 were wounded in an armed attack on a street party.
Last night in Aurora, Colorado, 12 died and 59 were wounded in an armed attack on a movie theatre.
Whenever these terrible events occur, and they seem to be occurring with increasing frequency, there’s always a great deal of soul searching and blame placing in the media.
Guns kill. Drugs kill. Gangs kill. Poverty kills. Racism kills.
Religion. Video games. Movies. Political rhetoric. Comic books. Misplaced concepts of honor. Ancient feuds. According to the press pundits and the news channel experts, they all kill.
Nobody wants to tell the truth.
Killers kill.
People with something seriously wrong inside them pull the triggers.
And wield the knives.
And swing the machetes.
And step on the accelerator.
And swing the baseball bat.
And drown their kids.
And immolate their daughters.
Whatever method of dispatch is used, the problem is not the object taken up to do the deed. The problem is the person who decides to use it to end the life of another.
But we’d rather take the easy road and blame inanimate objects, imaginary friends or cultural trends than address the harder and harsher path of figuring out what the hell is wrong with us.
Following the Toronto shooting, somebody going by the handle “bitchslappedbylogic” searched Twitter and linked everything related, then formed it into a timeline.
It far surpasses anything from any traditional media outlet. Input from those who were there. Shout outs from the ones who were shot. Then ominous predictions of retribution and witnesses debating what they should tell the cops.
That link took me into a world the endless TV talking heads and newspaper editorials repeatedly avoid. Because it’s easier to find something to blame than face what some of us have become or have been turned into through no fault of our own.
I’ve written about the way we agendize tragedy in the past and on a sad, terrible day like today, those thoughts bear repeating:
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