“Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them humanity cannot survive.”
Dalai Lama
Dalai Lama
Here lies compassion, cherished offspring of Love and Tenderness and sibling to Mercy and Goodwill. You were struck down in your prime by a malignance of ill will. May you rest in peace.
The purchasing manager walked into my office and looking past me through the windows at the helicopters hovering nearby said, “That’s not a good sign.”
I work a few blocks from both the Oakland International Airport and the highway so the sound of helicopters isn’t out of the ordinary. Could be air traffic, a flight school or traffic reporters. I had noticed that the sound was persistent and it did sound like multiple aircraft. Being a busy morning I’d paid them no mind until she called my attention to them. I looked out the window to count five helicopters, some hovering miles away and one or two nearly directly overhead.
I offered that, “This might be the work of another upstanding citizen.”
She came back in my office a few minutes later to tell me that early reports were of a shooting at the Wal-Mart nearby and she admonished the staff to stay in the building. A few minutes later I went on the internet to the website of one of the local news stations to learn that there had been a shooting, not at Wal-Mart, but at a local vocational college. Oikos University teaches, theology, nursing, Asian medicine and music; an odd mix. It is a Christian school associated with the Praise God Korean Church in Oakland and Shepherd University of San Francisco. Most readers by now know that a gunman killed 7 students and wounded 3 others before fleeing and being caught a few hours later in nearby Alameda.
Throughout the course of my workday I went back to the news station website to follow the progress of the incident. Later in the afternoon I went to Yahoo news, read the article and, against my better judgment went on to the comments.
By now I suppose I should be jaded to the content in the comments sections of internet news. But I still find myself staggered by the level of ignorance, stupidity and downright meanness of my fellow citizens. Among a smattering of condolences was a host of misplaced humor and searing malevolence.
Among those who can find levity in just about anything were:
Pingüino, "They give me B grade! I never get B grade befo. I shoot up the school!"
CavoretheMoonExplorer, “It's a good thing this happened at a nursing school. Plenty of people who know how to help. There's always a bright side........”
NObama2012, “Lets see, a California man, in nursing school? Hmmmmm....”
The anti-Christian at all costs contingent weighed in with:
Hillbilly49, “Where was Jesus, God or the Holy Spirit today; do they get Monday's off?”
LuisD, “It amazes me that in the 21st century we still have centers of learning that preach myth and superstition. This is the very opposite of reason and critical thinking.”
Lancegoodthrust, “What a pathetic lot those christians are!”
And finally there was condensed venom:
Senalvingreene, “WHAT A STUPID SCHOOL. GOOD RIDDANCE.”
There’s a flood of this bile out there, poking fun at Koreans, wagging fingers at Christians and playing a whole deck of race cards.
This kind of “humor” and bile isn’t new. It just used to be carried on out of earshot between imbeciles who would yuk it up while elbowing each other in the ribs. Now the moron brigade has unabashedly gone public.
I’ve nothing against humor and irreverence. Anyone reading this blog would know that. There is however a line; and it really isn’t a fine line. It’s one that’s easy to spot and it delineates a boundary that when crossed is hurtful to those who have suffered loss or takes advantage of a tragedy to poke fun at the victims.
These are people (and I use the term loosely) who really have no soul. They are in some ways as hollow as the murdered himself because, like the killer they have no feeling for the victims or their families. The killer was simply more overt.
Sadly we've become a cold, merciless society, a heartless monster possessed of a relentless and ever growing animus. I'm reminded of a former co-worker who often spoke of retiring to a deserted island where she could be free of people. Every time that I give in to my bad judgment and dive into the raw sewage that is the news comments I understand exactly where she is coming from.
There are so many things wrong about this tragic story. The most obvious have to do with yet another crime with a gun committed by an unhinged individual.
ReplyDeleteIn this case, that individual is an immigrant who apparently felt picked on by others because of his poor English. Why did he have a gun? Is it because he believes that everyone in this country owns a gun? Is it because he felt so out of place that he wanted some sort of protection? Hard to say at present but it really doesn't matter because, regardless of who commits a gun crime, others suffer because of it.
The comments you quoted from the Internet news sources are typical in this rapidly deteriorating society. One common denominator always stands out with such comments, that almost never does the person posting the comment provide his name. There would be so much less of those types of idiotic comments if posters were required to provide their names.
I don't totally agree with you about society becoming a heartless monster. This probably is because my opinion of humanity in general is pretty low. Anyone who works in a job dealing with the public understands how such a low opinion is arrived at. I see and deal with too many people daily at work who are stupid, self-absorbed, and believe that their bad behavior is acceptable because it suits their own selfish needs.
Your former co-worker echoes to a degree my sentiments that a perfect home for me would be one where my closest neighbor is at least a thousand feet away. You may recall how much I liked the History channel series Life After People. Part of that was the notion of our planet overcoming the abuses heaped on it by humanity once that humanity is gone. The other part of that liking is that, unlike my late mother, I am not really a "people person".
That doesn't mean I dislike everyone. An example of what it does mean is that after spending too much time at work picking up after the lazy ones, the stupid ones, and the slobs, I can't get out of Fremont fast enough and go home. Living alone has its good points and bad. One of the good points is that if you don't feel like talking to anyone, you're alone and can do that without offending someone you'd rather not offend.