Sadness

As I am frantically working and in each spare second think about color schemes and whether I will need three pairs of strappy sandals in Germany or just two the news of the Malaysian Air plane being shot down hits the world and makes me pause.

It’s the second plane that crashes in a short period of time but this one hits close to home.  About 100 people on this plane were on their way to Melbourne for the annual AIDS conferences and as such are people I once considered colleagues.  10 years ago I worked in that field, specifically on a diagnostic device that made monitoring the disease cheaper and more suited for what is in the community referred to as resource-poor settings, sub-Saharan Africa, parts of Asia and Central and Latin America.  My Greencard was obtained on a National Interest Waiver based on the work we did and some of the people on the plane I knew then and probably met at conferences and meetings and on conference calls.

It is a terrible tragedy whether the people on the plane are famous researchers or do something else for their living, but to loose 100 people who worked tirelessly to fight a still incurable disease which afflicts predominantly people in the poorest countries and wrecks havoc there is beyond comprehension.

There is little more I can say, I feel numb and since I am not the praying type there is nothing I can do.  My thoughts are with the families of the victims and the HIV community who lost so many great and dedicated people.

 

Tragedy

Yesterday a seemingly healthy and – from what we read and hear in the news – exceptionally smart 20 year old grabbed three guns and shot 27 people – 20 elementary school kids among them – in a small, affluent little town in Upstate New York.

Some facts about guns, pic: http://www.thenation.com/article/169295/gun-control-dream#

This tragedy is incomprehensible and hits especially close to home for us as we have a kid in elementary school, too – albeit across the country.  But outside the shock and sadness I feel and the deep empathy for the family members whose lives are destroyed as mine would be if my son was murdered, I feel rage and despair and a deeper disconnect from this country as I have ever felt.

In the wake of this tragedy what we hear is the call to stand firm by the Second Amendment clause giving the people of this country to right to bear arms.  What we hear are the same old stupid lines repeated such as “guns don’t kill people, people kill people” and “we need to get the crazies off the street, then these things wouldn’t happen.”  This phrase were stupid and superficial and  deeply hurtful even in the instances of shootings where the gunman was somebody who struggled with mental health issues.  In all those recent cases of  “crazies” shooting up schools and movie theaters, apparently the system failed to keep people who – after the fact where called crazy or mentally ill – from buying guns.  In all cases the system failed to recognize the severity of the mental health issues in people and to get them off the street and to provide them with help.   Curiously enough, the same people who want no gun control also often hate the government and want to “starve the beast (of government)” thereby effectively doing away with organized mental health treatment options.

This case, though,  is different again.  The guy wasn’t crazy, or maybe he was but there were no signs unless you count being shy and very smart as crazy (in which case I know a lot of crazy people).  Even if we got every single person worrying about alien invasions, speaking incoherently to themselves or drawing pictures of bombs off the street this tragedy would have happened.  The only thing that could have prevented this is if the guy did not have access to a number of guns and ammunition.

He could have still killed, that is another lame argument by the gun lovers, with a knife, or an ax or a dagger.  True, he could have, maybe a few people before being overpowered or running out of steam.  I have no personal experience with this but it seems logical that killing with a distance weapon like a semi-automatic gun is entirely different from stabbing somebody to death or running after somebody with an ax.

The reactions across the political spectrum was interesting.  Most notable I found that the right wing press (which I sometimes read to try and understand how the other side is thinking ) has ignored the shooting to a large extent or argue that God let this happen because people weren’t pious enough.  Red State.com saw fit to bemoan the fact that as a nation we only come together during events like this shooting rather than for happy occasions like sporting events.  Seriously, is that all you have to say in a situation like this, “let’s applaud our Olympics gymnastics team more energetically”?  I won’t even comment on the highly offensive comments made but the ultra-right fringe, their God is way to hate- and revengeful to  pay any attention to.

Most shocking, though, I thought was some of the main stream reaction I saw on Facebook, etc.  “nothing will change”, “this is how it is”, “People will not give up their guns” etc.  20 kids and 7 adults are dead in an entirely preventable tragedy and the American people collective say a prayer for the families, hug their children and shrug their shoulders.  Where is the wide-spread outcry, where the demands to stop this madness?  Where is the horror over this and where the empathy for the victims and those who will inevitably follow behind?

I read an editorial in the New York Times, written by a father of a young man who was killed 20 years ago in a killing spree and who struggled and fought for gun control and eventually gave up realizing that Americans as a nation – not all individuals – seem to be willing to accept such tragedies as they price they have to pay to own and carry around their (concealed) guns.

What a terrible and disheartening testament.  What a cruel message to the families of the victims, these and the ones before and after, a message that says “what happened to you is bad and I sure wouldn’t want it to happen to me or the people I know but I accept that you pay the price so I can buy my 13 year old a semi-automatic weapon for his birthday.”

And this message, this fundamental disregard of life, this utter lack of empathy and sense for the greater good I struggle with more than with anything else in the country I have ever struggled with.