-By Jake T. Snake
I am still pondering the massacre in Binghamton, New York as the 10th anniversary of the Columbine High School shootings approaches on April 20th. The author of this piece at Salon.com asks some of the same questions I have wondered about in regards to these type of massacres. Why are we suprised that these events occur when we value death and violence as first level coping skills here in America? When culturally as North Americans we have allowed our society to come to a place where our government spends a third (and I suspect this is a low estimate)of our taxes on new and interesting ways to kill people who disagree with us can widespread violence really be far behind? Is it any wonder that these type of killings are now a monthly event springing up randomly throughout the country? Those of you who have watched the documentary Bowling for Columbine know that Michael Moore also explored some of these same questions. Why is it the Canadians own far more guns, but aren't killing one another as we do in the states? Maybe guns don't kill people. At least not without people driven to this level of desperation attached to them.
We will hear the same tired commentary each time, we need more gun control, fewer video games, better mental health services. These solutions tend to frame the problem as something that can be contained if we can predict, control or change individual behavior. I do not believe any of these are the solution, because I think this is so much larger than any individual. These massacres are a symptom of an ongoing illness, which again is why they keep popping up regularly and randomly across the nation. This urge to violence is so much a part of who we are as a society that we don't even see it anymore.
The massacres are just the most glaring example and they capture the media's attention. No one writes articles or has a clip on the 6 O'Clock news about the subtle violence of children with not enough to eat, families without health insurance or being made to feel like a piece of shit when all you want is a little help from your local Department of Social Services. Beauracratic systemic violence may be the worst kind of all, because we allow its perpetrators to hide behind rules and regulations which give the process a veneer of civility. Let's not forget that all the money we spend on weapons creates the situation where we are forced to ration services to people. Violence seems to be the default setting for many of our interactions with our fellow man. How many people did you give the finger to today while driving? How many people did you snipe at, including family? Did you use the power and control you are able to exercise for good today? Even the latest wingnut political movement has been shorthanded as teabagging and while it is amusing let's be clear that there might be an element of degradation in that particular sexual act and hence violence. I don't think it is news to anyone that the sexual culture in this country is violent, hence the prevalence of rape.
The real question for me is which of our systems and interactions are not informed by violence. They become fewer the closer I look. I don't have the answer to preventing these types of shootings, but I do know that what we are doing now isn't working. I keep hoping that the tide can begin to turn and that some of the money going to weapons could go to provide food and housing, plenty of people need it. Just like in a household we spend our money as a nation on those things we value most, evidently in the united states that value is destruction of both ourselves and others.
I have been reading the book Bowling Alone by Robert Putnam who suggests that the social fabric of civic engagement is seriously fraying and I can't help but feel this plays some part in the puzzle. It is easier to do violence to people you don't really know or feel like you have a common goal with. Perhaps, it is time to step away from the computer and go to A PTA meeting, volunteer to coach little league or be a fireman, build sets for the local theatre company, volunteer at a human service agency or just take your kids to the park and chat with a stranger. I think a lot more of us will be getting to know our neighbors here in Binghamton (well, maybe the ones who aren't toting shotguns around their front yards). It is a shame that it takes an event of this magnitude to shake us out of our complacency and to see our shared humanity.