Stop Accepting Violence
Our family friend senselessly was shot to death last month in a carjacking.
Brian was young, spirited and full of human dignity with a wonderful life ahead of him, and I am no longer content with the rhetorical “why?” and the Elizabeth Kubler-Ross stages of death which would place me in the area of anger just about now.
“How can God allow this?” is the question I hear many of my friends and family members ask. How can a loving supreme being allow for such evil to manifest itself on Earth? Nevertheless, I’m not blaming God, divinity in any form, for the horror that Brian and his family have experienced.
I am blaming us. How long will we as human beings, as members of a society that cries out to preserve inalienable rights and civic justice, continue to accept the violence that not only brings pain but also spreads like disease through our country, our city, our community?
We are all victims of the violence and the monsters who treat life cheaply and cowardly, pulling the trigger for a wallet, a car, an initiation. Yet, their rights are well-preserved while ours slowly are eroding, atrophied from lack of use.
Maybe the animals who shot Brian will be caught and punished. Maybe someday they’ll get their just reward and they’ll rot in hell. Until then, more than likely, they will continue to kill, feeding off the pain and the suffering of all of us, affecting us personally and publicly.
Take a stand, join a committee, put our lives on the line - it never happens. We wait until the pain affects us personally and then we cry out indignantly for retribution.
Why have we forgotten how to fight collectively? Why do we accept evil as part of life? I am disgusted with myself and with my own human race.
I have no room in my heart to forgive or forget. We are losing control of our own humanity, and evil people are continuing to rob us of our safety, our loved ones and possibly ourselves.
Life is not meaningless, cheap and worthless, but its market value is plummeting. If our shares of life are so cheap that anyone can destroy them, it is my humble and rudimentary suggestion that we start buying back its stock.
MEMO: “Your turn” is a feature of the Wednesday and Saturday Opinion pages. To submit a “Your turn” column for consideration, contact Rebecca Nappi at 459-5496 or Doug Floyd at 459-5466 or write “Your turn,” The Spokesman-Review, P.O. Box 2160, Spokane 99210-1615.