A Thanksgiving Thank You

The holiday season is upon us and being the manic depressive that I am, I find myself with typically conflicting thoughts. It seems to me that the whole country is sort of manic depressive in a way. The extremes are getting more extreme. I’m sure that right now there are people drinking toasts to their decadent excesses, feeling no guilt, while other people are feeling as if they are in a hole miles deep because they know their standard of living has dropped and shows no sign of a quick rebound.

It has always been this way in America and maybe it always will be. But if my less than glamorous existence is emblematic of America, then the way I am dealing with it is no less indicative of the resilience of the American spirit. I push on every day. I face personal crises on a daily basis and my soul bleeds likes a festering wound but I remain optimistic. What else can any of us do?

It is sad that the socially maladjusted minority regularly grabs the spotlight of the mainstream media. It is equally sad that many other people find these fringe dwellers with a perverse need for attention so fascinating. The ones who are ignored in all of this are the citizens who plod along on a daily basis and raise their children uneventfully, instilling them with a sense of values and dignity. This doesn’t make the newsreel highlights, and there is always talk of changing values and the erosion of the family, but certain things remain constant, and that still is and always will be the backbone of this manic depressive nation.

So this editorial is a shout to you, the ignored, the decent, the stressed and the children who are struggling to understand their existence while the world shifts beneath their feet. As John Lennon sang forty years ago, love is the answer. I know that to include such a cliché in an editorial is a literary sin but the truth of that statement will resonate through every generation. No matter what your situation, if there is love, there is hope. And I think the people of this country whose lifestyle has been so cruelly and abruptly disrupted realize that. They are the collective force for good that hold this country together against an ugly tide of corruption and greed. If we are to restore our simple sense of morality, untainted by manic depressive extremism, then those people will be our ultimate salvation and I want to thank them for it in advance, and let them know that their efforts do not go unrecognized, no matter whether the mainstream media pays any attention to them. I see examples of it every day, in the way a mother and child look at each other as they hold hands on the street. In the way a gentleman with twenty items in his shopping cart lets me go ahead of him because I only have three items. In the way that someone I don’t know compliments my singing in the church choir on Sunday. These simple gestures say so much about who we are as a society. I pray that we never reach the point where that kind of civility goes out of style. Thank you, and I hope everyone enjoys their turkey and football with a sense of moderation and civility.

The Range of Human Behavior

There have been two incidents in the past two days that showed the extremes people are capable of in stressful situations.

The first, more prominent incident occurred at Fort Hood, Texas. An army major, trained in psychiatry, and scheduled to be deployed to a war zone, snapped and tried to murder as many people as he could before he was taken down by this incident’s hero, Kimberly Munley.

Sgt. Munley is a trained firearms expert and has also served in the military. She committed a selfless act of bravery by confronting a man who had already committed multiple murders and suffered serious wounds while disabling him. She responded immediately and without hesitation and placed herself in mortal danger to save the lives of others. She is the mother of two young children, but upon recovering consciousness at the hospital, her first question was about the lives she had saved. This woman deserves the utmost respect and the highest honor this country can hand out.

The perpetrator of this incident, Major Nidal Malik Hasan is an army psychiatrist who spent most of his time counseling and comforting soldiers who suffered from post traumatic stress syndrome as a result of exposure to combat situations. It is unclear whether he planned to kill himself after he satisfied his lust for slaughter, but he had apparently authored several recent posts on the Internet about suicide bombers and had been giving his belongings away. The prospect of his upcoming deployment pushed him past his breaking point. The magnitude of his violence speaks volumes about the darkest capabilities of the human condition.

The second incident occurred at a Florida prison. Deputy Ken Moon was on duty and alone on a unit when he was assaulted by an inmate. The inmate had Deputy Moon in a choke hold which may have resulted in the deputy’s death if not for the quick action of four inmates who came to deputy’s rescue.

These men had nothing to gain by helping the deputy. When asked why they helped him, they responded by saying they liked him, nothing more, nothing less. It was a simple act of kindness in a place where that is usually in short supply. It was unclear why Deputy Moon was attacked, but when a man is in a murderous rage, clear thought is non-existent. The extent of his violence differs from Major Hasan’s only by degree.

I am not in any way trying to equate the heroism of Sgt. Munley with that of the inmates. However, just as the violence is different only in degree, so is the heroism. It shows the range of reaction that is possible when people are exposed to stressful situations. Violence and heroism have been constants throughout history. Until we can learn to live with each other peacefully, we must pray that the heroism of brave individuals will never succumb to the violence of the disturbed.

What Happened in Richmond, CA: Anomaly or Symptom?

The recent gang rape of a 15 year old girl outside a school dance in Richmond, CA would be an ugly incident all by itself. What makes it even uglier, however, is the fact that a crowd of teenagers stood around watching, cheering and taking pictures during the time this poor girl was being brutalized.

A spokesman for the school in question has disclaimed responsibility by saying it is not our job “to take these students home.” They immediately retreated to the “cover thy ass” position most likely to deflect the massive lawsuits that will be coming their way once this whole ugly incident is sorted out. I can’t blame them for doing that, and while it is very easy to place the blame squarely on the school for not having proper security, I think the blame lies elsewhere.

This is certainly the most heinous case of criminal apathy that I have come across. There have been other incidents where young people overdose at parties and the other kids just leave them there, not caring whether they live or die, but this case reaches a new low. That is something our society seems to be getting better and better at.

I still remember being a teenager, centuries ago, and I remember getting mighty drunk a few times, but I can’t remember ever getting the urge to gather a group of friends together and finding a girl to gang rape. I wonder, how does this mindset occur? Where does the notion come from that this kind of act is acceptable? Can you classify anyone who does think this is acceptable behavior as human?

That last question applies to those who watched as well as those who participated. Who has failed to demonstrate a proper set of values to these children? I think the better question is, where does the blame end? We are all in some way responsible. We allow for the set of circumstances where children can become so desensitized to the suffering of others that this type of behavior becomes possible.

So, is this incident an anomaly, not likely to be repeated, or is this a symptom of the mindset that prevails in today’s young people, where the dehumanization of an innocent young girl is shrugged off and considered unsurprising? The shock factor will remain acute for some time to come, but once that wears off, what are we left with? It could be interpreted as a generation of children without a functional moral compass.

Since Americans find it so necessary to blame someone for incidents like these, I have a suggestion for you. Go look in the mirror, wipe the sleep from your eyes, and do something to counter the endless tide of violent images that are sweeping our children into an immoral cesspool.