An American Tradition

On January 4, 2024, there was a shooting at a high school in the small town of Perry, Iowa. Like almost everyone else, I had to look the town up on the map because I'd never heard of it before. Sadly, Perry, Iowa, has become the latest trend in an American tradition. 

Apparently, we cannot control our worship of guns for even one school day of the new year. Why do we allow these things to happen?

The news coverage is so predictable in situations like this. It's like everyone reads from a well-rehearsed script. They seem to drag things out for maximum effect, which is why I READ about events like this rather than watching the Boob Tube if you'll forgive the 1970s reference. I simply cannot deal with these terrorist attacks any longer because that is precisely what they are. 

I wish that we could experience an epidemic of Kindness instead of gun violence, but that wouldn't generate TV ratings, so the odds are against it happening soon. 

Let's face it: we thrive on fear, anger, pain, and suffering in this world, and then we wonder why all these bad things happen. We bring all this negative karma on ourselves because we only know how to respond to a situation with violence instead of heart compassion. And let's not confuse kindness and compassion with the completely useless “thoughts and prayers” bullshit that always accompanies these tragedies. I feel that “thoughts and prayers” is nothing more than an excuse for lack of action.

As the day went on, the reports stated that the shooter was dead and that several people were wounded. Unfortunately, at least one of the victims also died. I hope that there are no more deaths from this incident, but we all know that the next one won't be that far into the future. 

I never had to endure an “active shooter” drill growing up. Now we have almost two generations who are conditioned to expect a school shooting. We have allowed this to happen because we won't address the interrelated issues of mental health and access to guns. Until we do, this sickening American tradition will continue.