A senseless tragedy.
Nothing is more sad, horrific, senseless and devestating as what happed on Decemebr 14th at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.
What in the world causes a 20 year old man to go on a rampage where 20 children and 7 adults have been slaughtered, then he kills himself?
The children screamed “I just want Christmas!” and “I don’t want to die!” Can one even fathom a child screaming in such terror two weeks before Christmas? Six year olds! Innocent, little lives, most likely excited about the up-coming Holiday and making their Christmas wishes to Santa Claus last night, brutally slain this morning. What will be the “excuse” for him this time?
Preliminary reports about the killer, Adam Lanza, state he was “a regular guy,” with no signs of “antisocial or dangerous behavior.” This type of hidden monster is becoming all-to-common today in America! While we worry about terrorists, the madness is among us hidden behind masks of sanity!
Schools, shopping malls, movie theaters, federal buildings, on the streets on any given city, no one is safe anymore!
No matter how henious the crime, we are never, ever hardened to the devestation that any “unknown” lunatic can snap and end the life or lives of innocent people and children!
Lanza also killed his mother, with her own guns, assault weapons. She was reported as the “nicest woman” who gardened, played Bridge, had community ties and was a “wonderful person,” and spent her life trying to HELP her “sick” son by those who knew her. What went wrong with her son, Adam? What did he hold against her as this mass killing must be related to his relationship with her and/or his family? Why did she purchase these guns?!
I am tired of hearing televsion psychologists scream that “this can’t go on!” They say “These people need help!” When the killer comes across as “an average guy,” how do we get them help? Who sees it coming? This problem runs far deeper than that! Our country’s values, family institutions such as marriage, child-rearing, community-involvement, compassion and empathy for fellow human beings is deteriorating at such a rapid rate that events like this tragedy will not cease until America returns to basics!
Society is quickly losing the meaning of happiness, importance, love and ambition.
Through Social Media, text messaging, isolation, lack of care and consideration for what is truly the essence of life we have become narcissistic, self-absorbed, angry, entitled, and so “all important” that human life becomes as cherished as a gum wrapper!
Forget “gun control,” and metal detectors! Forget “getting help” for these narcissistic antisocials! The very nature of those disorders are the inability to think they need help at all! Teen suicide, bullying, the under-development of social norms and personality are just getting started! There will always be guns, or other weapons and until we gain a more “back-to-basics” approach to raising our children, and ceasing the social isolation this country has fallen into, disaster of such magnitude is immenent.
Reports so far have found out that this killer spent countless hours in a “windowless” basement room of a “million dollar house,” playing the video game “Call of Duty” for hours and hours…days upon days….He had pictures of guns and war on these walls…now, innocent children and adults are dead and so is he. He smashed his hard drive, and answers are sought as to why?
Do I think video games are to blame?
Yes. Because of their content? Maybe. But moreso because they seduce children, with undeveloped brains and the inability to truly understand right from wrong, into hours and hours of consumption, keeping them from socialization that is so much needed for them to gain personalities, morality and empathy!
The liberal media cries for “gun control” while ignoring the core issue! Yes! Perhaps assault weapons serve no good purpose in our country! They are designed for killing. Law Enforcement and the Military need these, but individuals do not. The Second Ammendment is for Citizens’ protection from a Government with arms.
The media also cries for “Mental Health Care” for these children.
Sure! That’s true too! However, these killers are the types that fall through the proverbial “cracks,” are super intelligent, and will resist “help” when offered!
What is needed is a “back-to-basics” approach to community, family, marriage and morals! These are what’s MISSING and causing children to become internally angry, depressed, entitled and unpredictable! Parents too often let the children stay “glued” to video games, and computer-activities believing they are “safe” from the world’s evils, but alas, this is exactly where these “evils” are born!
Kids need kids to learn who they are.
They need to speak to adults and each other to grow emotionally. Video games do not foster such development!
I have branded this condition in America as SOCIALCIDE™ and my up-coming book Socialcide™: How America is Loving Itself to Death will hopefully bring answers to this devestation and social change by guiding people to real living again!
My heart and constant prayers truly go out to these poor innocent victims and their families for this psychopath’s rage. There is no excuse, but only responsibility! That responsibility is your’s, mine and particularly anyone who is, or is planning, to bring children into this world today! Parenting is a full time job, not a necessity, luxury or something to “fit-in” to your “busy schedule!”
Leo Battenhausen, MSW, LCADC, is a contributing blogger for JenningsWire, a blogging community created by Annie Jennings.