"Inside the massacre" the headline reads. As if I would like to get in there.
Great. Let's delve into that subject again, shall we? As if we, as a society don't already have the prerequisite knowledge to understand, a)what happened, b) why it happened, and most shockingly c) the understanding that it will keep happening. After all, it is not like guns are hard to get or anything, and let's face it, people are stressed...apparently. Put guns in the hands of stressed-out people and watch what happens. Oh, wait, I've already seen that show.
Was this worse that Colombine? How about Virginia Tech? How about any day in Newark, NJ? Can 4 youths being gunned down on a playground in Newark be considered a massacre? Um, why yes. The answer would be yes, it can be.
The "massacre". Man, I hate that word. I have looked at it from every angle; the bodega massacre, the Congo, Northern Iraq, Newark, NJ., Croatia, Darfur. There are past massacres, those currently taking place and those bound to happen in the future, at least according to Dick Cheney--my god...there's another one about to happen any day now!! I am aware! I am not ready, but I am definately terrified. I know all about it. I have been paying attention. I read all the bold print and the breaking news banners.
Yet still, even though I believe that I have my Ph.D in this subject, I am, according to the headlines, in need of an education about the type of person who commits this kind of crime. For some reason, as if it is not abundantly obvious at this point, I need to know why someone would pull a semi, or a fully automatic (save time!) weapon out and kill his fellow man instead of just swallowing a bunch of pills behind a dumpster somewhere.
Hey! I know it's news. I know it's tragic, and by now I think I am qualified to be a criminal profiler, so much do I know about the minds of killers. I am, I think, over-educated about this. I don't need to know anymore. There is nothing new that you can teach me. I don't want to get "Inside the massacre." And I especially do not want to get inside the mind of a killer. But I have to tell you, I wouldn't mind getting inside the mind of a person who thinks that it is okay to sell automatic weapons over the counter to average citizens. I would love to converse with them but they are not in my class.
They are still back in Massacre101.