Tuesday, October 03, 2017

20/20 on Mass Murder

Vasu Reddy from Chicago
vasureddy@aol.com

If not for terror in the news, we have mass murder.  These days it has become common place for killing strangers without cause.  There is never a reason to kill another person, but the killing of innocents has become standard practice around the world.  Mass murder for whatever reason is simply inhuman, but is being practiced.  The analysis after the fact is seldom useful, and only adds to the cruelty towards the innocents.

There is a lot of analysis, speculation and thought on psychology of mass murderers and trying to reason with why it happened.  There is no dissection of the reasoning for mass murder.  Seemingly normal human beings attacking strangers has become common place, and the carnage continues worldwide.  The media speculates (as with on everything else) and every outlet there is covers the murder/s until the next one.  No one thinks of children watching, listening or browsing the coverage.  Imagine little ones watching TV with their families being subjected to constant coverage of mass murder, what it could do to their thinking?  There is no doubt that news needs to tell people of what is happening, but bombarding the channels (all outlets) with mass murder will not allow anyone to escape, and no one cares about the two things; one – the murdered people, and the listening public, as it becomes a news story today and later a follow-up segment.

The acts of kindness and heroism of strangers typically plays out with the human beings in us.  We will by and large lend a helping hand, and run towards the needy.  There is a lot more human than anything else in all of us, and with each horror of mass murder we also see the kindness of strangers.  So, it is not all lost in humanity, it is simply some of us deciding to kill.  For whatever reasons behind the killing, the analysis simply doesn’t add up to catching or stopping the next one.

What is becoming common place is the intensity of mass murder.  Targeting innocents (unsuspecting and out in the open) is really the easiest target, as no one knows of the danger in an airport, office, concert, on the road, school, college, or just doing their daily and routine chores.  People must live and do stuff, and they are out in the open and in groups, and are easy targets.  They are unsuspecting and out in the open and the easiest targets.

Imagine the vast spaces of USA, in fact the world.  It is impossible to check, cover, monitor or manage the area, and try to pin point to where someone decides to commit mass murder.  The entire world is not a war zone, and people are not fighting with each other everywhere.  Much of the world is minding their own business and trying to live a normal life, until someone attacks; again.

The sad if that we let it happen again and again.  The news is (analysis) is constant.  The politics and process remains the same.  No one starts to care once the dead are laid to rest, except the families and friends of the affected.  There is no down grading the concern of news and others, but the next one comes again and again.  While the analysis of each instance is ongoing and afterthought, we really can’t plan for the next.  Guns, weapons, politics, religion, and human nature and whatever is influencing the killers is unpredictable and has become unavoidable.

It’s sad but avoidable.  All that can be done is finding more human in humans and perhaps a world that will start looking at life is a onetime blessing, and it can’t be given back.

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