Over the past few days, I have sat back and listened to my friends and the media opine about the causes and the remedy of the tragedy that took place at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Ct. All agree that it was tragic, unnecessary, wasteful. I, personally, was shocked by the response of some who, while the events were still unfolding, were willing to judge others, or leverage this tragedy to emphasize a point, especially one which I have heard them advocate frequently. In effect saying, “See, this is why we need ______” where the blank was filled in with various solutions. Gun control, better mental health treatment, armed guards in schools, metal detectors, and on and on and on. Even more disturbing to me were the people on the right and left who were so quick to say that they hoped or wished that peoples hearts and minds should be equally moved to empathize with ____, where the blank might be filled with any cause for people to die needlessly, abortion, foreign wars perpetrated by our government, curable illness, etc. I felt that this was incredibly insensitive, and was shocked at how little empathy these people showed for the victims and their families.  I didn’t particularly care for your causes before, and now I could care even less, because you would use one tragedy to attempt to build a case for me to care about a different one. Even worse are those who claim that this tragedy is somehow a judgment for some sin, or claimed wrong that our society has perpetrated or permitted – whether that be gay marriage or violence in media and games or removing prayer from schools. Bunk and Hogwash. Continue reading →