The Reoccurring Tragedy of School Shootings

Gun violence is a systemic problem that needs to be addressed.

Countless thoughts have been running through my head around the Parkland shooting. Calling it a “senseless tragedy” is a platitude, since every shooting has been a senseless tragedy. Let’s call it what it is: a reocurring tragedy. A systemic problem that needs to be addressed.

Megan Devine writes in her book It’s Ok That You’re Not Ok: Meeting Grief and Loss in a Culture that Doesn’t Understand: “When someone comes to you in your pain and says ‘I can’t even imagine,”‘ the truth is: they can imagine. Their brains automatically began to imagine… Faced with this visceral knowledge that we, too, could be in a similar situation, we shut down our empathy centers. We deny our connection. We shift into judgement and blame.” The judgement and blame are so obvious and forceful that it’s sickening. If only law enforcement had done something about the shooter. If only schools had tighter security. If only the survivors would stop turning this “senseless tragedy” into a platform.

I can imagine and I am terrified and hopeless for my children. I can imagine, as a parent, that losing my child would rip me apart. I can imagine going through every moment for the rest of my life without my child there, and the pain that I would live in…