Desensitized
Just reading about the horrific murder of Sean Taylor, the pro football player for the Washington Redskins. It's just a crying shame. It's a horrible crime about men chasing his money, and not caring who gets in the way. Certainly, Taylor's death shines some light on a subject that we have become desensitized to.
I defy you to open the paper tomorrow - and I don't care what city you live in - and not find at least three stories about murder. You can't do it - there may be at least five, but I also guarantee that you won't register the names or the details of the crime. There will be funeral, after funeral, and yet, we will not really know the names.
Taylor's death will deservedly receive a lot of play, and every person who reads the details will shake their head in pity. Yet, there will be more murders tomorrow, and the day after that, and the day after that.
I read an article written by a black ESPN columnist, Jason Whitlock. He called the acceptance of death in African-American communities, the new "Black KKK". I read the comment section on his blog and nearly everyone panned the column as being racist. Whitlock is black! He lambasted black society for accepting, and even glorifying violence. He quoted rap lyrics as downright nasty, and still the commenters said that "He doesn't understand us."
I don't understand it either. I don't understand that you can't go to bed at night without locking every window and door, and activating the alarm. I can't comprehend why my wife watches the children so closely when they're playing on the swingset in the backyard. It boggles my mind that children are stolen, teenage girls are raped and murdered, and there are hundreds of thousands of missing children. It pains me to realize that there will be thousands of lives lost in Iraq, but five times that number lost on our own city streets. It's not an African-American problem. It's not a Puerto Rican problem. It's not a Iranian problem, or a Chinese problem. It's an American problem and it takes all of us to stand up and say - that's enough. Imagine if tomorrow we could all just get out of our beds and vow not to murder someone today. I can do that, you can do that, but sadly, we can't all do that.
I don't know what a glok is. I'm not sure what sort of slight would result in gunning someone down, but I do know that I see the details daily in the morning newspaper, and that I normally gloss right over the names, the lives lost, and the pain.
And that's the worst part of it all - I've accepted it as a part of life that no one wants to talk about - and that's a crying shame.
I defy you to open the paper tomorrow - and I don't care what city you live in - and not find at least three stories about murder. You can't do it - there may be at least five, but I also guarantee that you won't register the names or the details of the crime. There will be funeral, after funeral, and yet, we will not really know the names.
Taylor's death will deservedly receive a lot of play, and every person who reads the details will shake their head in pity. Yet, there will be more murders tomorrow, and the day after that, and the day after that.
I read an article written by a black ESPN columnist, Jason Whitlock. He called the acceptance of death in African-American communities, the new "Black KKK". I read the comment section on his blog and nearly everyone panned the column as being racist. Whitlock is black! He lambasted black society for accepting, and even glorifying violence. He quoted rap lyrics as downright nasty, and still the commenters said that "He doesn't understand us."
I don't understand it either. I don't understand that you can't go to bed at night without locking every window and door, and activating the alarm. I can't comprehend why my wife watches the children so closely when they're playing on the swingset in the backyard. It boggles my mind that children are stolen, teenage girls are raped and murdered, and there are hundreds of thousands of missing children. It pains me to realize that there will be thousands of lives lost in Iraq, but five times that number lost on our own city streets. It's not an African-American problem. It's not a Puerto Rican problem. It's not a Iranian problem, or a Chinese problem. It's an American problem and it takes all of us to stand up and say - that's enough. Imagine if tomorrow we could all just get out of our beds and vow not to murder someone today. I can do that, you can do that, but sadly, we can't all do that.
I don't know what a glok is. I'm not sure what sort of slight would result in gunning someone down, but I do know that I see the details daily in the morning newspaper, and that I normally gloss right over the names, the lives lost, and the pain.
And that's the worst part of it all - I've accepted it as a part of life that no one wants to talk about - and that's a crying shame.
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