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My personal musings about anything that gets on my radar screen--heavily dominated by politics.

2007-04-17

On Evil--And Not Surrendering To It

In light of the horrific events at Virginia Tech University today, many people are asking some very tough questions.

Some are asking about the police response to the initial shooting, and whether that enabled the later carnage in the classroom halfway across campus.

Some are asking about the wisdom of lesser gun control laws.

Some are asking about the gunman, and his motives.

Some are asking about the culture we live in, and whether we, as a society, have created an environment that . . . fosters . . . this sort of violence.

But, in my humble opinion, all of the questions fall short of what we should be talking about.

The police response may have been flawed, and that was my initial reaction. But that didn't cause this young man to open fire.

The Assault Weapons Ban lapsed a little while ago, which meant that this young man could carry clips holding 19 bullets, instead of just 10. But that law did not encourage him to discharge those bullets into students on campus.

And the culture we live in does seem to be predisposed towards violent resolution of conflict. But some early stories leaking out indicate that he wasn't of this culture; and, at any rate, that doesn't explain why so many students were unable to muster a similarly violent response to end to the massacre sooner.

It is in the mind of the shooter that all the real questions have to be directed, and answered.

Or, perhaps, more directly, at this young man's soul. And we have to talk about evil, whether we like it or not. Whether it seems quaint and parochial, or not. THIS event is, in no uncertain terms, evil.

One early story coming out says that this young man recently broke up with his girlfriend, and that's what tipped him over the edge. But breakups are an extraordinarily commonplace occurence on campus, and violnce only rarely is the result of such.

But that leads to the question of what, in this man's psyche, made it seem reasonable, to him, to respond to his personal anguish with such inhuman violence? He probably is not--was not--an "evil person"; but evil sure found a way to use him to its own ends.

I would submit that it's not merely a tough breakup. That's not how evil works. Evil started working on this young man's soul many years ago. It started by whispering in his ear that he wasn't being duly recognized fo his athletic prowess when he was 8; it continued by pointing out that his parents seemed to fawn over his brother more than him; it took a side street by convincing him that he was a "prize catch" for women; it set him up by desensitizing him to human life, whether that was through video games or Chinese culture (one swirling rumor labels this guy a Chinese student/immigrant); and it probably weakened his spirit by justifying to him "one more drink, I don't need that much sleep..."

As I was thinking about this tragedy tonight, it occurred to me that this guy couldn't have just suddenly become a violent, hateful man. There were probably little tiny steps all along the way of his life that led him into this position. Tiny little steps that nobody around him noticed or were able to put any significance upon. Tiny little steps that put him on the edge of cliff, so that when his girlfriend broke up with him, he's over the edge.

And we still don't know if it was a bad breakup or what--one of the infuriating things is how precious little we know right now.

But, sadly, the evil--whatever its exact nature--will not likely end here. How many students, unable to cope with the images of the carnage they witnessed, will go on lengthy drug/alcohol binges to numb the pain? How many campus officials will ow look at every student with a less trusting attitude? How many friends will consider ending their own life to escape the horror of what their friend has done?

How many mothers and fathers will lose entire years of their life trying to understand why their child didn't come home at the end of the semester?

Evil will continue to work on this situation, it's tentacles spreading far and wide through the network of connections to the campus that those 33 lives created. In many ways, and not just numerical, this is a far worse tragedy than Columbine. Columbine, at least, happened in a community which was able to rally around and provide care and support for the students and families. A college campus is a different beast, and these families are likely dispersed to the four corners of the globe, unable to physically recreate a supportive community to share the burden and start the healing process.

Evil will spread from this, and it is up to the living to battle that evil.

How? I don't know. I know that making another law would only make the evil laugh; I know that spending a lot of energy and resources trying to assign blame will provide cover for the evil; I know that turning off violent video games, while shutting off some minds to violence, will do nothing in and of itself to fill the souls of young people with enough light to fight off the darkness.

And that's really what we're talking about. You can't combat evil on its own terms--its been around to long and is too savvy an enemy. There is only one way to ward off the evil, to contain it, and to try to make it return to the abyss from whence it came, and that is to DO GOOD.

I wonder, at what point along the way would a random GOOD have distracted this young man from his fate? If a friend had shown up unannounced at his door this morning with a Starbuck's, would he have continued with his plan? If a friend, knowing he was struggling with the breakup, had taken him home with him for the weekend to "hang" with his parents, would he have dreamt up this plan this weekend?

If a teacher in ninth grade had noticed him taking things particularly hard, pulled him aside and said "I like you, and I want to help you stop eating yourself up from the inside", would he have still been capable of this today?

And so I'm left with a sense of helplessness about the people in Blacksburg and their families extended around the world. I shed tears in their honor, and I pray that God give them some measure of peace today and tomorrow and the next day. But I don't know what else I can do for them.

Except . . .

maybe become a totem against the next such tragic event.

It IS in my power to commit a completely senseless, random ACT OF GOOD. Tomorrow, I CAN look for an opportunity to help one person who doesn't deserve it, I CAN pat one student on the back who earns it, I CAN pat another student on the back to let them know I'm glad they're here, I CAN help someone get from the parking lot to the building by carrying some of their overload, I CAN call up a friend totally out of the blue to say "I was thinking about you."

I CAN DO GREATER GOOD. And the only way I know of to fight evil is to DO GREATER GOOD.

So I would encourage each of you reading this to make a conscious effort to go out of your way today for ONE OTHER PERSON. Make it a small gesture--do that "thing" you've been meaning to do for weeks now, or just smile at people on the street for no reason, or make a point of sitting with the person at lunch who always eats alone. Something--ANYTHING. DO GOOD.

Make sure the people in your life know that they're valued, that they matter, and that the darkness is at least as far away from them as the length of your arm.

And pray.
Posted by: Michael / 4/17/2007 01:06:00 AM

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