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What to Do in the Aftermath of Senseless, Outrageous, Infuriating Events
When I was a boy, it seems in my memory, every school morning, my mother would come into my room, turn on that horrible light, peel back the covers, and sing out, “Rise and shine!”
It was the last thing I wanted to do.
I didn’t know that she and other moms were channeling the Old Testament prophet Isaiah, who looked forward to the restoration of Zion, and proclaimed, “Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD rises upon you.” (Isaiah 60:1)
She didn’t just want me to get out of bed; she wanted me to be the best version of myself. She wanted me to do my best. She wanted me to shine.
Our Darkest Hour
Charlie Kirk is dead and that is final. And that is hard. It is hard to think about his wife and small children left to deal with a senseless loss because a murderer snatched him from them. It is hard to see the vitriolic response of ideologues openly celebrating his assassination. It is hard to watch the public, ubiquitous video record of his death.
Iryna Zarutska is dead and that is that. While Kirk was apparently killed for his beliefs, she was killed for, what, her blonde hair? Her unfortunate choice of seating on a Charlotte bus?
One Denver high school student is in critical condition and another in stable condition after a fellow student, whom authorities claim was “radicalized”, opened fire on the school grounds, emptying his gun and reloading it numerous times. The shooter is dead. There’s nothing anyone can do about that now—except retreat to our ideological corners and assign blame.
In the aftermath of the Kirk killing especially, but also the others, the Internet has lit up with hot opinions from opposing camps, castigating one another, each impugning the other for their beliefs, stating either those beliefs killed Kirk, or celebrating Kirk’s death because of his beliefs.
How to describe the reactions?
“Chaotic” comes to mind. “Vitriolic,” too. I would call them caustic, careless, and in some cases perhaps, even criminal. Ignorant. Shortsighted. Mean-spirited. Hateful.
Some have lost their jobs because of idiotic outbursts, at least those outbursts were so deemed by their employers.
A South Carolina teacher was fired for this post: “Thoughts and prayers to his children but IMHO America became greater today. There I said it.”
A teacher and city councilor in Cornelius, Oregon wrote that the killing of Kirk “really brightened up my day.” His name is John Colgan and his full post was this: “Hearing that Charlie Kirk got shot and died really brightened up my day. Nobody deserves it, but some are asking for it.”
A public relations (of all things!) employee for the Carolina Panthers posted: “Why are y’all sad? Your man said it was worth it.” His post also featured an image of the song “Protect Ya Neck” by the Wu-Tang Clan.
More recently, a Chicago school teacher lost her job for making insensitive gestures where she pretended to shoot herself in the neck with a finger gun.
Nothing New Under the Sun
Hard to imagine, but celebrating the death of ideological foes is not a new thing, and it is not an American thing. Crowds have cheered lynchings in generations past. Two thousand years ago, outside Jerusalem, there was a party celebrating the execution of Jesus, whose only “crime” was his teachings.
Socrates was executed for being a dangerous thinker and teacher. Similarly, Voltaire’s death was celebrated because of the existential threat he represented to the Catholic Church. Different celebrants, similar reasons.
Martin Luther King was demonized by J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI. His death might have been celebrated by some, but the overwhelming outcry and the deep mourning that followed squelched that celebration. Of course, there was no social media for insensitive clowns to seal their own fates before being shut down.
Billy Graham’s death was more openly celebrated than King’s, by those who accused him of hatred and bigotry based on his beliefs. These responses closely resemble the more hateful Kirk outbursts.
If you want to go way back, you can go to that skull-shaped hill outside Jerusalem and join the party at the foot of a rugged Cross. Or you can join thousands in the Coliseum in Rome and watch gladiators mangle and kill one another, or Christians and so-called criminals torn to pieces by ravenous beasts.
Celebrating death is nothing new and it will never not be sad at best and disgusting at worst.
Is that all we’ve got now? Is this what we are left with? Nothing but rage. Outrage. Enrage. Hatred. Attacking people online because they are stupid and like the wrong college football team or they think the Beatles suck or they voted wrong?
It feels like we live in a very dark age despite how “enlightened” and “advanced” we believe ourselves to be. Humanity has never enjoyed more convenience and comfort. Nor have we ever been more vile and vitriolic. No matter how we lift ourselves technologically and scientifically, we cannot escape the Dark Ages, the tendency to tear and rip and plunder and kill everything we hate—and, boy, do we hate everything!
How, then, does one rise and shine on such a dreary day? How can we be light in the darkness?
Let me give you my five “P’s,” if you please.
Piety
Yeah, I know. Bad word. Ugly. Associated with people who put their principles over people or cling tenaciously to outdated rules, etc. In the war of Semantics, piety has lost. Regrettably, all the good it might have done is lost with it.
But what is piety?
A firm belief in God, shown through devotion and reverence
Commitment to worship and spiritual purity
A strong sense of duty and reverence
Moral goodness, uprightness, virtue
Piety, done right, is like a root system. It is like being a mighty tree that remains anchored and upright despite the weather.
People
Always prefer people, even over what you perceive as progress. Are they frail? Are they lost? Are they flailing? Are they mean? Are they immoral or amoral? Do they say and do bad things? Do they contend for things you abhor? Do they offend?
Are they people? Are we?
We are either in this thing together or it is every person for himself.
Purpose
What is your purpose? Answer that by answering these:
Who am I? Seriously. Not “who do people think I am,” or “who do I want them to think I am,” but, “Who am I?”
How am I? Do an inventory. What is my state of mind? What is my state of being? Why am I (pick one) angry, sad, happy, disturbed, scared… What condition is my condition in?
Where am I? Look around. Where are you in life? A parent? A teacher? A leader? A businessperson? A politician? Where are you?
What am I? Flesh and blood? Spirit? Soul? Temporary? Eternal? What am I?
Why am I? Why am I here? Surely, there is a reason, an underlying purpose to my existence. What is it? What if I did everything but what I was meant to do?
Passion
We don’t seem to suffer much with apathy these days. We are impassioned, inflamed, engaged—mostly in all the worst and most destructive ways. This is why I list purpose before passion. Passion without purpose is poison. It is destructive and endemic. In fact, we have a pandemic of purposeless passion. Everybody hating everybody else and knowing they are right to do so.
Did it ever occur to you that your outrage is just fuel for the machine? It lines the pockets of politicians, preachers, technocrats, media moguls, and morticians.
Passion is a good thing when it is coupled with a higher and better purpose. Otherwise, it is internally and externally destructive.
Positivity
My best friend in the world has been called “the eternal optimist” by friends and family. I speak to him almost daily because I need that influence in my life. I need that balance. I have no idea why he chooses to speak to me. Maybe he needs a damper.
“Positivity,” the way I mean it here, is not some clueless smile on an ignorant face. As the man once said, “Ignorance may be bliss, but it is no excuse.”
What I mean is “hope.”
Marcus Tullius Cicero, ancient Roman philosopher, said, “Where there is life, there is hope.”
Others have said, “Where there is hope, there is life.”
Hopelessness may be the worst feeling of them all and the most devastating.
Think about the timeless Christmas film, It’s a Wonderful Life. Clarence Oddbody, Angel 2nd Class has this conversation with the senior angel.
Senior Angel: “A man down on earth needs our help.”
Clarence: “Splendid! Is he sick?”
Senior Angel: “No, worse. He’s discouraged.”
Frank Capra was ahead of his time in understanding the toll mental health can take on a life. George Bailey’s hopelessness is palpable. Despite the disappointment of never leaving his hometown for the grand adventures he felt he was born to pursue, Bailey carved out a good life for himself and found happiness where he was—only to have it all destroyed in a careless moment. It was not his carelessness, mind you. It was someone else’s, but it threatened his livelihood and even his freedom.
He needed hope. He needed perspective. He needed to see that, despite the disappointments and losses, his was really a wonderful life. When he got that perspective, it changed everything.
Piety, people, purpose, passion, and positivity.
Arise, shine!
I am anxious to hear your thoughts on the matter.
