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Although shooting sprees are nothing new to Americans, we invariably react to news of such incidents with a collective sense of loathing and shock that gives the impression that we have been witness to a crime that happens once in a generation — not several times a year. It seems incompatible with the common conception of Americans as a desensitized citizenry that has become indifferent to violence. Sadly, we’ve had to confront this horror too frequently even in this early season, as 2009 has already been a bloody year.
Since the beginning of March, we have seen weekly — if not daily — reports of horrific killings from all parts of our country. Five dead in a Miami murder-suicide, a pastor gunned down at the pulpit, a gunman murdering 10 in a rampage across Alabama. Traffic stops and domestic violence calls have turned into Fallujah-esque street sieges that claim luckless policemen. People have even been caught in the sights of madmen while recovering in nursing homes and studying to become American citizens. According to the Associated Press, at last count there were 57 deaths as a result of recent mass shootings. Although truly senseless crimes, most share a narrative that makes sense of the morbid affair: a final, hopeless act of bitter immolation from a working class left in ruins by the “Great Recession.”
And that’s what this is truly about. This story has less to do with gun violence or self-destruction — people who live in slummy urban neighborhoods suffer such tragedies on a daily basis — than it does with our beleaguered working class slipping into the oblivion of indigence. According to Northeastern University professor Andrew Sum, of the 5 million jobs lost since the recession began, almost 70 percent belonged to blue-collar workers, mostly males. As these job losses mount and working class families are separated from their already meager prosperity, we know what to expect. The misery of widening destitution has only begun to make itself known.
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left out too many facts
I'm poor and I don't kill. No matter how you slice this issue, "acting out" is a vague conclusion of an observer upon violence. Suicidal rage is more accurate conclusion upon the mind of any perpetrator of mass violence. Murder suicide is more often about loss of sexual control over a victim, than it is about loss of jobs. I'm surprised there is not more violence directed at clergy, given that many preachers threaten their flocks with eternal hellfire,
It is amazing that more abortion clinics are not bombed, more doctors killed, given that millions of believers call a 9 week aborted embryo at 2 inches length or less "a murdered baby."
Who would idly stand by if a 20 inch newborn were killed?
Play fast & loose with facts & some people start shooting, build bombs or conspire to stab, rape or strangle.
Economic justice is a fine ideal, just don't try to get there by pretending you're preventing violence. Other motives exist besides loss of income. Religious delusions, whether stated "defenses" at trial or confessed in notes of the perpetrator before such crimes, all could be combated by an assertive secular society rather than our defacto theocracy, subverting a fine godless US Constitution.
Ultimately, the social contract is poorly postured and often betrayed by the very people many of us trust. Your editorial point is well taken, just incomprehensive. When we have a society that is NOT based upon conquest, violence & repression, there will be less violence. It is not random.
Perpetrators are being hatched right now in angry saloons, angry radio broadcasts, angry hate literature against Jews, Atheists, Gays, Muslims and where ever one mind is not encouraged towards a pacific path to confrontation and reconciliation.
My mind may not read a large bank account or a steady livable wage paycheck, but my vision guides me to speak out, not LASH OUT.
I'm not a vengeful Jehovah believer or would I blame an alleged bad god Satan.
Get real editor.