Here we are again folks, another tragic mass shooting. This time at an elementary school in Texas.
It seems to be a popular trend here in America. There's a shooting on a Tuesday, we cry, give out our thoughts and prayers, and then by Sunday something else happens and it's not news any more until another shooting happens three weeks later.
We fight about gun control, but obviously that does nothing because we’ve been talking about it for years. After Parkland, CNN aired a town hall meeting in order to end gun violence in the country. When that happened I remember thinking, “Wow, this is pretty cool and it might actually work.” Well, it turns out that was a stupid thought because it ended up doing nothing. Sunday came and we forgot.
Do I think we need more gun regulation in this country? Absolutely! But I also know that as long as politicians get richer with money from these gun lobbyists, nothing is going to change. So, I don’t focus my energy on that because it’s a waste.
Obviously mental health is something we should discuss, clearly that’s an important factor here. Some Republican senator talked recently about needing more money for mental health reform in the country. Well that’s a good thing, and I’m all for that. But let’s be honest, that isn’t going to happen either. If he really wants to impress people, maybe he should reject gun lobby contributions. But again, not going to happen, so I don’t hold out hope.
Look, I know you’ve heard all of this before, and are probably tired of hearing it, so gun control and mental health reform are not what we are going to talk about here. Instead I want to try to do something, I personally don’t believe is done enough.
After Sandy Hook, a statement went out online that for some reason was falsely linked to Morgan Freeman. The statement blamed these types of tragedies, not so much on guns, but rather the media's obsession with giving the perpetrators a platform.
We are always forced to see their faces, know their names, and try to understand, "Why does this keep happening?" Well guess what, I don't care anymore. Motive? To quote Chris Rock, “What ever happened to crazy?”
The piece by the fake Freeman also talked about how giving these people a platform spawns copycats, and makes people want to live in infamy, rather than just "off themselves in their basements." While obviously I don’t want that either, I couldn’t help but agree with what I had read.
Now, I do have to acknowledge the fact that the media has SO FAR done a pretty decent job at keeping this particular perpetrators name and identity out of the news cycle. What also impressed me was an article in The New York Times focused on the victims of this recent shooting.
https://www.nytimes.com/article/uvalde-shooting-victims.html
We need more of this. But this is one article, and it’s not nearly getting the attention it should.
I’m going to list some names off for you, and I want you to tell me if you know who any of these people are? Jessica Rekos, Olivia Engel, Avielle Richman, Jesse Lewis, Grace Audrey McDonnell, Noah Pozner, Ana Marquez-Greene, Emilie Parker, Charlotte Bacon, Catherine Hubbard, Josephine Gay, Daniel Barden, James Mattioli, Caroline Previdi, Allison Wyatt, Victoria Leigh Soto, Lauren Rousseau, Dawn Hochsprung, Mary Sherlach, Rachel Davino, Anne Marie Murphy, Dylan Hockley, Madeleine Hsu, Chase Kowalski, Jack Pinto & Benjamin Wheeler.
Don’t know them? I didn’t think so, people don’t really talk much about them. They’re the 26 victims of Sandy Hook. When that tragedy happened, nobody knew any of those names, because not enough attention was placed on them. Remember “We’ll never forget?” I guess we forgot.
The absolute minimum we could do is to know these people. To try and remember their names, their faces, their lives.
I want whoever reads this to go through the history of these shootings, and find one victim. Only has to be one, from one tragedy, doesn’t matter which, and learn about that person.
I'll give you an example, this is Rachel Scott…
She was a 17-year-old girl who lived in Littleton, Colorado. She was an aspiring actress and writer. She, like Anne Frank, loved to keep a diary and share her struggles about her life.
She was a devout Christian.
Her friends described her as silly, loving to wear quirky clothes and hats. But what she was mostly known for was her kindness.
She wanted to be a good person and make others happy. One of her famous quotes was, "I have this theory that if one person can go out of their way to show compassion then it will start a chain reaction of the same."
Rachel died on April 20th, 1999, as the first victim of the Columbine High School shooting.
In Rachel's case, her family started something called Rachel's Challenge, which is a non-profit organization that travels the country and tries to help with bullying and reducing violence in the country.
That's just one example of a really special person that very few know about.
Let's change the narrative, let's take time to remember the lives of these innocents who are taken so horribly, and give them the attention they deserve.
Do I think that will fix this problem of violence that we face? Of course not! But it's something new, and it's a trend we really should start. There are thousands of names to choose from. Pick someone, learn about them. Don’t keep them as “19 DEAD.” Give them an identity, and actually never forget.
Well argued, for the last twenty years I have walked into a classroom, I've always checked for exits, I shouldn't have to.