Someone to blame...

It's happened again.  This time in San Bernardino.  Why are we so surprised?  A free society is always a messy business.  Is it any wonder that the anti-gun crowd is foaming at their collective pie holes again?  They peruse the same flawed logic table that blames the sun for a sunburn, water for drowning and gravity for broken hips.  They are an ambulance chasers wet-dream.  I get it.  Really, I do.  We gotta blame somebody.  Blame the inanimate object.  Blame the jihadist.  Oh, and the NRA.

If you lose someone to a senseless act, every neuron in your brain wants to know WHY.  Just as every cell in your body cries out for revenge.  But nothing will salve the feeling of loss and bereavement.   In our anger we are pitiful creatures with clenched fists swinging wildly at the unrelenting frustration over our inability to prevent tragedy.  But we should guard against the demonizing of a segment of our society for the misdeeds of a few.  Our loss is their loss too.  When we give-in to blood-lust we are all diminished.

Hatred doesn't need facts or reason to exist, only heat.  The kind of heat created by the friction between what we know and what we do not.  We know the loss but we don't know why.  Only when we believe we know why, can we move toward catharsis.  And we all need catharsis.  Problem is, we'll kill for that too.  Just give us a target.  Just give us some THING to kill and we will all feel better in the morning.  This is the fecund soil in which tyrants sew the seeds of genocide.

Justice is a concept we hold above revenge as a forestalling of the bloodletting we crave.  A poultice for our wounded spirit.  Whenever the perpetrator of our anguish is dealt with, we rejoice or at least breathe a sigh of relief.  Only then do we realize our folly--that no one is spared from hatred.  Everybody loses.  There is little sport in the rendering of justice.  Nor should there be. Don't get me wrong, I am for justice and a righteous bloodletting when it is warranted. 

Unfortunately, the deranged, like the poor, will always be with us.  They will take many forms and they will always demand our best efforts in order to prevent tragedies both large and small whenever we can.  Stripping access to guns from the law abiding is simplistic and foolhardy at best.  We all have a part to play and it involves caring for each other.  That is where understanding and  healing awaits us all. 

After all, we are still our brother's keeper.