The unfolding events in Omaha have captivated our increasingly violent culture. We are once again standing around like fools, scratching our heads and asking, “What happened to the shooter that he should commit such an crime?” Just once, I want someone to say “Who cares what ‘happened’ to him…let’s focus on what he did.” Instead, the media and the commentators are scrabbling to find anyone but the shooter to blame for the atrocity. This lack of moral clarity was summed up when a friend of the shooter said in an interview “I don’t think any less of him…I know [the shooter] would never do this for fun…he wanted to go out in style and that is exactly what he did.”
The sheer horror of that gentleman’s statement needs no pontification or reiteration. It speaks all to well for itself. I hope America is as repulsed and incredulous about it as I am. I don’t even know where to begin. The question at the foremost of my mind is, “What do we do with people who think like this?” Can we do anything? How does one reason with a mind that is so utterly devoid of reason? The moral compass is absent completely. If these are the friends the shooter surrounded himself with, it is no wonder he was able to make the moral, or immoral, decision to massacre innocent people.
In general, the media coverage has been sickening. The ensuing commentary has fawned over the shooter, continually counting him among the dead as a “victim” of sorts. I refuse to print the shooter’s name…hopefully others will do the same.
Why memorialize what amounts to the ultimate in narcissism and selfishness?
Yet, as a society, that is what we seem to do.
God help us.
