Not a lot can really be said about Gifford; at least, not a lot can be said for now. Have his friends said anything? Did he even have friends? Have his parents said anything? No. There is no way to really dig into the life, the mind of this young man until more is found out.
His classmates said he was creepy, his professors said he was creepy but where are the quotes from the friends and family of Loughner? With all the negative comments made about him there was at least one positive comment at the end of NYDaily News, "Loughner worked as a volunteer at the Pima Animal Care Center, where he walked dogs and cleaned cages. "He loved animals and was a good worker," said another volunteer."
What happened to this boy who loved animals but can kill 6 people and wound 13 others? What sits at the forefront of our minds is who was Loughner? Were his actions driven to get attention, to go out of this world with a bang? Was it just a random murder or plotted? What ran through his mind when he bought that gun, he loaded that gun, he pulled the trigger on that gun? Why did he choose to shoot Gifford when she wrote him a kind thank you note?
Is this boy completely insane, completely tyrannical or are there a number of things that piled on top of him, one after the other till he tipped?
At the same time, should we wonder what went through the mind of this adolescent, I think its almost more relevant to look at what effects his actions can have.
There are the immediate effects. The lives lost and those who will mourn those lost lives. There are the wounded and those who will pray each night that those wounded will live, will function properly. But there are other effects to consider.
A lot of killings like this are people looking for attention, looking to be remembered. They don't care if the attention is completely negative. The focus on this boy, Jared Lee Loughner, needs to probably disintegrate. What does it accomplish focusing so much attention on this young man? It may give us "warning" signs for the future but honestly I think we've learned from this not what to look for but instead to open our mouths and try and find a suitable way to address the needs of someone like Jared Loughner before their actions become his.
Focusing so much on Loughner and what he did doesn't help the situation. It gives others with problems like Loughner the idea and want to be more extreme in order to get more attention.
Lets take our attention away from this young man. Lets come away knowing that we can't ignore the mentally ill that surround us. Recognize that harsh insults about them, laughing at them won't help them. Lets come out of this with a prayer in our hearts for those most affected by Loughners shooting and a prayer in our hearts for Loughner.
Don't focus on Loughner but focus on what we can learn from this awful event and what we can do to help those with similar mentalities to Loughners.
No comments:
Post a Comment