I've taken a little while to write something substantial regarding the shooting recently at Reynolds High School. It has been, and will continue to be, something that is terribly difficult to process; emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. My heart brakes for the families that have been directly affected by this tragedy. Two young men with limitless potential have been taken from us, and my heart breaks for what might have been.
What pains me even more than this, is seeing some of the reactions of my fellow human beings. Before the parents had even been notified, political parties were rallying their troops trying to push their agenda's. Looking at Jared's Facebook page broke my heart, as I saw countless of his classmates, his "friends" calling him the most vile of names. While deep anger and grief are merited in such instances as this, such sheer hatred as I saw there has no place.
Then watching the news media as they pulled his picture from his Facebook page, hearing about them relentlessly seeking interviews with his friends, sending them text messages, like dogs fighting over a scrap of meat they slavered for any information they could get. Refusing to let his friends grieve. Then watching as they threw their "stories" up on Facebook as so-called "adults" attacked not only Jared, but his parents, and at times, his religion.
Is it any surprise, in a society that not only condones but encourages such blatant and utter hatred of our fellow human beings, that shootings occur?
While some turn this into politics, and others want to point fingers at the shooter and his family, and yet others want to take it a step further and scream and yell obscenities at Jared and his family, I say take this opportunity to examine yourself. There is a sickness within our very culture. The sickness of pride. The idea that we need to do it all on our own, and everyone else should as well, and that we can't reach out to others and help them in their time of need.
How might this story have been completely different if we took responsibility for each other as we should. If we stopped being so quick to judge, so immediate to run to our political opinions, and cutting down those that we feel aren't as "enlightened" as we are.
I have chosen to go into pastoral counseling because almost no one was there for me when I went through my dark times. I was very nearly a sad statistic, not exactly like these two young men-teenage suicide rarely gets national coverage-and it was only because of the intervention of friends that I was able to make it through.
Somehow, we as a people failed Jared and Emilio.
Among the Iroquois, it is the responsibility of the entire clan to look out for each other. When one is harmed, all are. There was a time when the saying "it takes a village to raise a child" was actually practiced. No more. Now it is up to the immediate family, often just the parents, to raise a child, and when that family is reduced to one either through divorce or untimely death or never having been "nuclear" in the first place suddenly those odds look pretty grim.
It's time to stop shifting blame. It's time to stop saying "he did this, I had nothing to do with it." It's time to stop saying "it was all his parents fault." It is time to start asking "do I really love my neighbor? Do I even know my neighbor?" Because yes, Jared-or someone like him-IS my neighbor, and he or she is in some way my responsibility.
The Master said "thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself."
Can we believe it again? Can we LIVE it again? Can we love each other? Can we be our brothers or sisters keeper? Can we accept when we fail, and try to do better in the future? To me the RHS shooting, and every shooting before it, is a clarion call to rise up. Not to enact new legislation, because this problem is not about any law that can actually be enforced, or to get furiously angry, and scream obscenities to the sky and blast your vitriol on Facebook, but to shake off these chains that keep us from being all that we truly can be. It is time to love each other, to care for each other, to be concerned with each other. To be united. If we fail to heed this call, then we are doomed to continue on this same path, wringing our hands and repeating the mistakes of our past.
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