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The Student News Site of Saint Louis University

The University News

The Student News Site of Saint Louis University

The University News

Caring for Kirkwood, Northern Illinois

Two weeks ago, on Feb. 7, six people were killed and two were wounded in Kirkwood, Mo., when a resident opened fire during a city council meeting.

Last week, on Feb. 14, Valentine’s Day, six people were killed and 16 were wounded at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Ill., when a former student opened fire in a lecture hall.

This week, after a few sincere thoughts and prayers, most of us have moved on with our lives.

Hold on. Slow down. What’s happening here?

Two massacres occurred in two weeks, one of which is four-and-a-half hours from Saint Louis University; the other, less than 20 minutes away. Twelve people died. Eighteen were wounded. These shootings happened, and they happened in our community, in our backyard, in the Midwest, in metro St. Louis.

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Shouldn’t this spur action, we wonder? Shouldn’t we protest? Shouldn’t we instigate reform? Shouldn’t we cry? Shouldn’t we get angry? Shouldn’t we demand justice? Shouldn’t we hold a community-wide memorial, attend a special Mass, start a collection? Shouldn’t we do something? Shouldn’t we . shouldn’t we feel something this time?

Action has already been taken. It would be inaccurate and callous to ignore the tide of media coverage, the canceled classes, the huddled mourners, the funerals for fallen bystanders, the Facebook groups, the bake sales, the phone calls, the flowers and the efforts that many groups and individuals have made to help those affected by these shootings. Undoubtedly, certainly, surely, people care. We care.

But just below the surface, past our shock and behind our acts of goodwill, percolating up through our mental filters, buzzing somewhere in our individual consciences, is a shaky thought, a nauseating thought, a tense thought, a secret thought: What if we, as a community, don’t care anymore?

Strung between a blistering desire for empathy and a cold, probing curiosity about motive and cause, we think, “This has happened before.” Since last year’s April 17 Virginia Tech massacre-the most gruesome school shooting ever, in which 32 people were murdered-at least six school shootings have occurred across the United States. Yet we’ve done little, if anything, for the victims of those shootings.

We remember Columbine High School, where, on April 20, 1999, nine years ago, two boys killed 12 students and then killed themselves. We remember how horrified we were then. The Kirkwood and NIU shootings prompt comparatively little response.

We know we are humane. We know that, on some level, on many levels, we care. And we know that individuals are suffering. We can even imagine it.

So we try. We try to make what happened real. We try to make Columbine and Virginia Tech, Northern Illinois and Kirkwood, real.

But for some reason, we can’t, because we cannot explain them.
Instead of delving into the terrifying territory of “why,” we cover it up and move on. But real caring involves both emotional and practical action.

For now, it may be necessary to numb ourselves to the horror of what has happened, but we cannot close ourselves off. We cannot forget.

Get past the excuses and the assumed impossibility of understanding. Read narratives. Talk to people. Imagine yourself in the same situation. Sort out the who, the when and the where. Clear the confusion. Prove that you empathize. Prove that we are a community and not just a group of distant, desensitized, heartless individuals.

But then, we must act. We must ask, “Why?”

As a community, we must try to understand, so that we can put faces to death tolls. We must understand how we can prevent shootings, whether by controlling access to firearms, making ourselves aware of films and music that desensitize us to violence, tightening school security or requiring psychological screening. Though psychological profiling would be invasive and largely ineffective, we should look after our neighbors when we see they are struggling. We must invite them into our family. When something appears to be wrong, we must hear, not just listen, and offer help.

A recent Princeton survey indicates that most school shooters don’t “snap.” After failed attempts at social integration, they make plans to kill, and they tell others about those plans.

Do these suggestions seem utopian, even ineffective? They might. They run counter to that individualism that we, as a nation, have historically cherished. But now, if ever, we must deepen the relationships that tie us together. We must speak to our neighbors. We must realize that we are responsible for each other.

Two weeks ago, on Feb. 7: Connie Karr, Michael Lynch, Tom Ballman, Ken Yost, William Biggs. Charles Lee “Cookie” Thornton.

Last week, on Feb. 14, Valentine’s Day: Gayle Dubowski, Catalina Garcia, Julianna Gehant, Ryanne Mace, Daniel Parmenter. Steven Kazmierczak.

Rest in peace.

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