THINKING ABOUT SENSELESS VIOLENCE

With the Boston Marathon atrocity dominating the headlines, when this was written earlier this year, we could not help but remember other recent public tragedies, perpetrated by those most of us would probably consider crazy people.

The majority of us are fortunate to never have witnessed or known anyone tragically gunned down by random violence in the street, or God forbid, in our own families. When a man shoots and kills his entire family, often before killing himself or when a woman drives her children into a lake, we sympathize with the victims of the tragedy and their families and call it senseless. 

When such events as 911 happen, we experience a sense of dismay and disbelief, not only because such action seems senseless, but also because most of us cannot understand why anyone would want to deliberately to harm innocent people. We truly cannot imagine any reason which might make us consider something similar.

Vigilante justice, no matter how much we might seek to justify it as an act of a desperate person, must always be something which society universally condemns. When movies such as Law Abiding Citizen or the Death Wish series of movies, seek to explain and illustrate what might compel someone to 'take the law into their own hands'; we still need to consider that justice is not always immediately either apparent or available.

The 'eye for an eye' of Biblical times, has been replaced by Criminal and Common Law which seeks to prevent Vigilantes. The law seeks to diffuse and deescalate potential violence by angry and especially, enraged individuals.

The trained and impartial help, provided by our police and government to ensure public safety on our behalf is expected to treat all persons equally and enforce the laws of the land.

In the instances where, psychological and medical help is needed by troubled individuals no longer able to cope with their lives, we pray that they are given the help which most of us know we are both unable and unqualified to provide. 

Whether chemical or psychological help is required, we hope that someone knows what to do to help those no longer able to cope with their lives. 

Occasionally however, we might have to accept that we may never understand why someone behaved the way they did. We say 'something snapped', others come in to try and explain what might just sometimes be inexplicable. 

I think that there will be times, when perhaps, senseless violence is just that, senseless and understood only by the troubled perpetrator. Occasionally perhaps we may have to accept that we may never know what motivated them and that perhaps we will probably never understand everything that our fellow man does. Perhaps, sometimes it may have to be enough for us to observe what has happened dispassionately and accept that 'it is what it is', whatever it was. 

We survive, pick up the pieces and somehow try to go forward with the rest of our lives. 

REVISED JUNE 28, 2013: PREVIOUSLY CALLED - ACTING UP AND ACTING OUT. 

SEE ALSO: ME FIRST - TOTALLY IN YOUR FACE; LIFE IS NOT TOO SHORT and UNREAL REALITY