Tuscon Tragedy; How can I help?
The recent tragic event in Tuscon and the various media spins in the aftermath leave me longing to hear someone speak about it with humility. I am often disturbed by the media's approach to such horrific events. The arrogance of pundits and politicians is striking, as their need to blame is thinly disguised, as a study in prevention. Some don't even try to disguise it. They just blatantly blame. The latest scapegoats are harsh rhetoric and lack of gun control. Other times the scapegoat has been an insufficient mental health system. I'm not a proponent of harsh rhetoric, the NRA, or an imperfect system but the "blaming" rhetoric is like an addictive substance. Watching them blame each other is addictive, too. It's a mental process that numbs the pain and once we start we are soon looking for our next blame fix. We viewers are the addicts and they are our dealers. It all feels like a way to defend against feeling our helplessness. We have been helpless to control people with severe mental illness, from insane acts of violence. I suppose we couldn't have Anderson Cooper or Glen Beck dropping to their knees on national television to feel the agony of that helplessness, saying, "God. help us, we don't have a clue how to stop this kind of thing from happening again!" But I think it would be refreshing!
Perhaps, no one would vote for a politician who admitted, "I don't have the answer." But I would sure listen to one who started with that kind of honesty!
We don't have to wait for CNN or Fox to leads us freedom from our addiction. We could turn off the TV and let ourselves be really affected by what happened. We might feel some withdraw symptoms. We could get quiet and surrender our false sense of being able to control everything. We could reach in or out to a power greater than ourselves and ask for Light to shine in the dark places. We could begin to look at the violence in ourselves. How do we "kill" our own feelings? How do we separate ourselves from ourselves. How do we "kill" our love for others? How do we separate from the people in our lives? How are we insane? How do we lash out? How do we deny reality? How do we engage in blame? How are we like the shooter?
Can we answer these questions and love and accept and forgive ourselves? Can we acknowledge our insanity and still remember our goodness?
I don't have the answer, but I know the way we've been doing it isn't working. Humility begins as we acknowledge and feel our helplessness, as we realize we are not so different from the one who has completely lost touch with reality. Each one of us working to heal our own issues is the only tangible place we can start.
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