the long and winding road...

The Amish School shooting:
The senseless violence in the last few days has gotten me thinking. It has created much soul searching for many, I know.

The world can be and always has been a very violent and dangerous place. There is no time in history when people have not expressed their concerns at the violence in society and question whether children should still be brought into the world, etc. Read the history books, these discussions have taken place since the middle ages, in colonial society, through the industrial revolution, flapper days and certainly in the heyday of apparent safey –the 50’s. There has always been tremendous violence committed upon the weak in our society including women, children, handicapped, mentally ill, and the poor. Murder, rape and abuse is a condition of the human race.

Small towns, big cities, doesn’t matter. A person can be the unfortunate victim of a crime anywhere. That’s the part that is so frustrating and scary. What bothers me is the fact that we are all so plugged in to the media that sensationalizes everything that we live with a constant undertow of terror.

Yes, you should definitely take reasonable precautions to protect yourself and your children. You should wait with them at bus stops, you should walk them to the bathroom, you should utilize the buddy system, etc. You should also teach your children to recognize a potentially dangerous situation and provide them with some tools for protecting themselves. But if the Amish school shooting can teach us anything, it should be that no matter how insular your community and how great your efforts are to close yourself off from all that is potentially bad, the bad people can still come get you. Sad, I know, to be so out of control of the evil in some other people. But a fact.

All you can do is protect yourself and your family the best you can and hope for the best. I know that seems awfully passive and I’m not a passive person by nature, but “safety” for the most part is a perception.

It is a world filled with danger but for the most part, we’re safe from the most extreme forms. Most people will live their whole lives without having a crazed killer come into their personal lives. But we will not be immune to all crime. Almost everyone at some point in their lives will be affected (either personally or familialy) by an act of violence.

But, you can’t live your life waiting for it.