The Ultimate Looser: When Shots Rang Out.
Many of us who live in Greater Binghamton New York, myself included, are still shocked by the mass shooting at the American Civic Association downtown. People outside of this city do not know its history: a century ago the slogan of many immigrants coming into Ellis Island was, "which way E.J." It was the only English phrase many immigrants had learned on their pilgrimage to the American dream. They were asking where they could go to find Endicott-Johnson Corporation, a shoe factory in our town. Binghamton has a legacy of welcoming and assimilating immigrants. Although they might not have specifically heard of Binghamton,and the town may not have have been their destination, the town is a symbol of the hope of America's huddled masses. What went so terribly wrong, then, last Friday, that one of those immigrants lashed out at his fellow immigrants and his new country, then took his life, and why have shootings become all to common across America?
Some will no doubt say that the city failed Mr. Wong. The town is now greatly depressed as companies, including Endicott-Johnson have left the area. ShopVac where Mr. Wong had worked has left the area. Many of the people who come here for the American dream either find there hopes frustrated or leave for more prosperous areas. But when you come as an immigrant, not knowing the language or the culture, leaving is more difficult. Some of the immigrants in the area become dependent on the welfare state. And yet as with many dreams, it is what you make of it. There are still corporations employing people in the area. There are numerous educational opportunities. Upstate New York is a verdant, hilly area and the town is still small enough that it is peaceful. And for some leaving for a better life is the best choice. The town did not fail Mr. Wong he did not chose to take advantage of the things that are hear to help him. He had quit his English class at the American Civic Association. That was his choice. Neither the association nor the city failed him.
Some will say this happened because our culture is becoming more violent or cruel. Our local paper reported that some of his co-workers had teased Mr. Wong. All across the country this week the nation was plagued by violent shootings: first three policeman in Oakland; then Binghamaton, just yesterday Pittsburgh. These follow on random shooting in Alabama, shootings in Churches, schools places of employment. Maybe what we need to do is take away the instrument of violence? Do we think that if we took guns away it would make people less violent? In the midst of these assaults by gun this week, one man, using a knife cut the head off his 7-year old sister, stabbed his other siblings before he was apprehended. He did not need a gun to commit mass murder. Guns don't kill; enraged people do.
There is a reason the Constitution of the United States gives us "the right to keep and bear arms." It only took about 2 minutes for Binghamton police to arrive on the scene. In that short time 14 people had died. Unfortunately, first responders are just that--responders. They are reactive. They respond after the violence has occurred. The campus police at Virginia tech arrived on scene of the shooting there within 10 minutes. They were too late the damage had been done. When you are in a violent situation you need to be proactive, our forefathers understood that action in defense of oneself was essential to liberty. The ideas are far from old fashioned. The writers of the 2d amendment did not live in a high tech culture where police responded quickly, but neither were most of them frontiersmen. The infrastructure of our culture and cities had been well established by the end of the 18th century, and the writers of the 2d amendments were no longer considering a citizen's need to to fight off Indians, or wild animals. They had one thing in mind-- self defense.
In a free society we all face two kinds of threats: first, we are threatened from within by those who fail. There will always be people who for whatever reason fail. A handful will become disgruntled and disillusioned and lash out at those of us who succeed, some violently. Second, we are threatened from without by those who can not have the dream. So our founders envisioned a society where free, responsible people could if necessary defend themselves. The recent shootings across our country merely show us the wisdom of our founders. Far from being an anachronism, there was a never a time when the right to keep and bear arms was more relevant and necessary. The threats we all face are real, and sometimes to survive we may not have time to wait for the police to arrive. We have to be able to defend ourselves. The solution is not to surrender or rights to "keep and bear arms."
Some will say this shooting and others occurred because of what we did and have done to people. As a child I was sickly, had a speech impediment and was often cruelly made fun or even abused. Somewhere along the line I learned that pouting about it, and being depressed and angry, was only going to hurt me. I learned to take advantage of my strengths and excel in the things I did well. I learned to ignore the harsh insensitive comments and let my success quiet the criticism. I was raised in a family that taught me it was my responsibility to take care of myself, overcome life's challenges, and that I did not need help from anyone else. My father did not pay anything toward my college education. I paid every penny. I paid for my graduate school degree and my post graduate degree. To those who made fun of me, yes, at the time it hurt. But they are not making fun of me now.
Then there will be some in my circles that will suggest these shootings are because of God's judgment. Some did that after 911 and Katrina. I do not claim to know the mind of God, but I do know that we cannot associate specific events with God's greater plan necessarily. Remember Jesus' words when he was asked about tragic events of his time:
Lk 13:1-5
13:1 Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. 2 Jesus answered, "Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? 3 I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. 4 Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them-do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? 5 I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish." NIV
The fact is the tragedies of the world happen because sin entered into it, and of that we are all guilty. Some people look at the recent shooting and wonder why God's judgment fell on the victims, and I wonder why I was spared. I am just as deserving of judgment as any of those immigrants.
So why does this happen? Let me offer three possible explanations:
First, we have lost an ethical and moral standard in our culture and we are no longer committed to the value of life. This is the danger that our liberal abortion policies bring. We think our convenience, our individual health, our right to personal gratification is the most important thing, and it is our right to dispose of anything (even or children) if they are inconvenient. That is the basic argument of free choice. It is just between a woman and her doctor. No one has the right to restrict my free choice. It is a private matter. The problem with this view is that it is fundamentally flawed and impractical and has implications for every area of life. As I drive the highway I am restricted in my right to chose. Some bureaucrat has decided a safe speed. They have decide to restrict my choice to speed. My employer has assigned certain hours for me to accomplish a proscribed task, if I do not report to work at those times, and accomplish that task, I will not have a job. Choice all ways has to be limited if we are to be a free people. Liberty can only exist where there are boundaries on my choice or else it becomes anarchy and is destructive. Free Choice is an oxymoron, because my choices all ways have consequences. There is always a cost to them; they are never free. My convenience is not my most important right. But our society communicates to us in a number of ways that I can do what ever I need to do to get what I want and no one should be able to restrict me. One restaurant has a marketing slogan, "no boundaries." Well it sounds good until someone walks into your restaurant, school, church, workplace or civic center with a gun, and they have no boundaries.
Second, I believe we are becoming a society that discourages appropriate displays of anger. Have you noticed how it is socially unacceptable to express outrage anymore? It is a solecism to offend someone, regardless of the reason for the offense. Don't shout. Don't raise your voice. I want to suggest that some of our emphasis on counseling and assuaging conflict has left some people with an inability to express anger appropriately. The man that shot the Amish children in the school house had apparently not known where to express his anger over the loss of his daughter until one day it exploded in rage. Children are not suppose to keep score in athletic competition, because it might make the losing side feel bad. We are not supposed to show pictures of the burning World Trade center because it might bring anguish to people who see it. Well none of us wants the other side to feel bad, but isn't part of maturation learning how to cope with feeling bad. One has to understand the hard realities of life, if one is to grow up. If one can learn to cope with loss on the athletic field, is it possible she can apply that lesson to loss in the work place?
What about anger?I think there are times I have a responsibility to be angry (like when someone attacks my country), but let the volume of my voice raise, or my body tense, and suddenly I am in the wrong. I do not believe in violence or rage, but I do believe we can react against abuse and injustice. How can a person express their anger? When a person is laid off from a job, there is a certain degree of anger towards those who had the power to do that. The anger is normal. It is not wrong. In males it is a result of an increasing production of testosterone, and if that hormone is not expelled, it will explode in rage somewhere. This is why I believe we need to teach our children how to express umbrage in appropriate ways. How to be angry with someone yet control it and treat them with respect. I think we also need to get back to anger transference. Go expend some energy when you are angry, physically express your frustrations, walk, run, chop wood, get that energy out. Do not hurt people or property but get that energy out. We do not tell people that any more. We tell them be quiet, do not offend anyone, talk to some body, but do not be passionate or raise the volume of your voice, and only use politically correct speech. So the person hold it in until he explodes irrationally.
Thirdly, I believe we need to quit excusing the perpetrators. Monday morning, the articles will begin to try to determine where Mr. Wong's family, the American Civic Association, the Shop Vac Company, his religious leader, or the government went wrong. Experts will be interviewed. Individuals and institution will be excoriated. Regulations and legislation will be passed to make sure this never happens again. Unfortunately, the only people who will be restricted by the changes will be the people who are going about living their lives at peace with themselves, their neighbors and God. Those ticking time bombs among us will not change the way they interact, they will not take the sensitivity classes, and they will break the new laws. This happened because Mr. Wong like all of us was a flawed man. The unfortunate thing is he, being unable to deal with his failure, or anger, made choices that retarded his soul, rather than choices that redeemed him. There are lots of lessons to learn from this and lots of people who can learn them, but there is only one person to blame, only one person who deserves punishment, and further restriction of his rights, and he, sadly, is dead-- the ultimate looser
Some will no doubt say that the city failed Mr. Wong. The town is now greatly depressed as companies, including Endicott-Johnson have left the area. ShopVac where Mr. Wong had worked has left the area. Many of the people who come here for the American dream either find there hopes frustrated or leave for more prosperous areas. But when you come as an immigrant, not knowing the language or the culture, leaving is more difficult. Some of the immigrants in the area become dependent on the welfare state. And yet as with many dreams, it is what you make of it. There are still corporations employing people in the area. There are numerous educational opportunities. Upstate New York is a verdant, hilly area and the town is still small enough that it is peaceful. And for some leaving for a better life is the best choice. The town did not fail Mr. Wong he did not chose to take advantage of the things that are hear to help him. He had quit his English class at the American Civic Association. That was his choice. Neither the association nor the city failed him.
Some will say this happened because our culture is becoming more violent or cruel. Our local paper reported that some of his co-workers had teased Mr. Wong. All across the country this week the nation was plagued by violent shootings: first three policeman in Oakland; then Binghamaton, just yesterday Pittsburgh. These follow on random shooting in Alabama, shootings in Churches, schools places of employment. Maybe what we need to do is take away the instrument of violence? Do we think that if we took guns away it would make people less violent? In the midst of these assaults by gun this week, one man, using a knife cut the head off his 7-year old sister, stabbed his other siblings before he was apprehended. He did not need a gun to commit mass murder. Guns don't kill; enraged people do.
There is a reason the Constitution of the United States gives us "the right to keep and bear arms." It only took about 2 minutes for Binghamton police to arrive on the scene. In that short time 14 people had died. Unfortunately, first responders are just that--responders. They are reactive. They respond after the violence has occurred. The campus police at Virginia tech arrived on scene of the shooting there within 10 minutes. They were too late the damage had been done. When you are in a violent situation you need to be proactive, our forefathers understood that action in defense of oneself was essential to liberty. The ideas are far from old fashioned. The writers of the 2d amendment did not live in a high tech culture where police responded quickly, but neither were most of them frontiersmen. The infrastructure of our culture and cities had been well established by the end of the 18th century, and the writers of the 2d amendments were no longer considering a citizen's need to to fight off Indians, or wild animals. They had one thing in mind-- self defense.
In a free society we all face two kinds of threats: first, we are threatened from within by those who fail. There will always be people who for whatever reason fail. A handful will become disgruntled and disillusioned and lash out at those of us who succeed, some violently. Second, we are threatened from without by those who can not have the dream. So our founders envisioned a society where free, responsible people could if necessary defend themselves. The recent shootings across our country merely show us the wisdom of our founders. Far from being an anachronism, there was a never a time when the right to keep and bear arms was more relevant and necessary. The threats we all face are real, and sometimes to survive we may not have time to wait for the police to arrive. We have to be able to defend ourselves. The solution is not to surrender or rights to "keep and bear arms."
Some will say this shooting and others occurred because of what we did and have done to people. As a child I was sickly, had a speech impediment and was often cruelly made fun or even abused. Somewhere along the line I learned that pouting about it, and being depressed and angry, was only going to hurt me. I learned to take advantage of my strengths and excel in the things I did well. I learned to ignore the harsh insensitive comments and let my success quiet the criticism. I was raised in a family that taught me it was my responsibility to take care of myself, overcome life's challenges, and that I did not need help from anyone else. My father did not pay anything toward my college education. I paid every penny. I paid for my graduate school degree and my post graduate degree. To those who made fun of me, yes, at the time it hurt. But they are not making fun of me now.
Then there will be some in my circles that will suggest these shootings are because of God's judgment. Some did that after 911 and Katrina. I do not claim to know the mind of God, but I do know that we cannot associate specific events with God's greater plan necessarily. Remember Jesus' words when he was asked about tragic events of his time:
Lk 13:1-5
13:1 Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. 2 Jesus answered, "Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? 3 I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. 4 Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them-do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? 5 I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish." NIV
The fact is the tragedies of the world happen because sin entered into it, and of that we are all guilty. Some people look at the recent shooting and wonder why God's judgment fell on the victims, and I wonder why I was spared. I am just as deserving of judgment as any of those immigrants.
So why does this happen? Let me offer three possible explanations:
First, we have lost an ethical and moral standard in our culture and we are no longer committed to the value of life. This is the danger that our liberal abortion policies bring. We think our convenience, our individual health, our right to personal gratification is the most important thing, and it is our right to dispose of anything (even or children) if they are inconvenient. That is the basic argument of free choice. It is just between a woman and her doctor. No one has the right to restrict my free choice. It is a private matter. The problem with this view is that it is fundamentally flawed and impractical and has implications for every area of life. As I drive the highway I am restricted in my right to chose. Some bureaucrat has decided a safe speed. They have decide to restrict my choice to speed. My employer has assigned certain hours for me to accomplish a proscribed task, if I do not report to work at those times, and accomplish that task, I will not have a job. Choice all ways has to be limited if we are to be a free people. Liberty can only exist where there are boundaries on my choice or else it becomes anarchy and is destructive. Free Choice is an oxymoron, because my choices all ways have consequences. There is always a cost to them; they are never free. My convenience is not my most important right. But our society communicates to us in a number of ways that I can do what ever I need to do to get what I want and no one should be able to restrict me. One restaurant has a marketing slogan, "no boundaries." Well it sounds good until someone walks into your restaurant, school, church, workplace or civic center with a gun, and they have no boundaries.
Second, I believe we are becoming a society that discourages appropriate displays of anger. Have you noticed how it is socially unacceptable to express outrage anymore? It is a solecism to offend someone, regardless of the reason for the offense. Don't shout. Don't raise your voice. I want to suggest that some of our emphasis on counseling and assuaging conflict has left some people with an inability to express anger appropriately. The man that shot the Amish children in the school house had apparently not known where to express his anger over the loss of his daughter until one day it exploded in rage. Children are not suppose to keep score in athletic competition, because it might make the losing side feel bad. We are not supposed to show pictures of the burning World Trade center because it might bring anguish to people who see it. Well none of us wants the other side to feel bad, but isn't part of maturation learning how to cope with feeling bad. One has to understand the hard realities of life, if one is to grow up. If one can learn to cope with loss on the athletic field, is it possible she can apply that lesson to loss in the work place?
What about anger?I think there are times I have a responsibility to be angry (like when someone attacks my country), but let the volume of my voice raise, or my body tense, and suddenly I am in the wrong. I do not believe in violence or rage, but I do believe we can react against abuse and injustice. How can a person express their anger? When a person is laid off from a job, there is a certain degree of anger towards those who had the power to do that. The anger is normal. It is not wrong. In males it is a result of an increasing production of testosterone, and if that hormone is not expelled, it will explode in rage somewhere. This is why I believe we need to teach our children how to express umbrage in appropriate ways. How to be angry with someone yet control it and treat them with respect. I think we also need to get back to anger transference. Go expend some energy when you are angry, physically express your frustrations, walk, run, chop wood, get that energy out. Do not hurt people or property but get that energy out. We do not tell people that any more. We tell them be quiet, do not offend anyone, talk to some body, but do not be passionate or raise the volume of your voice, and only use politically correct speech. So the person hold it in until he explodes irrationally.
Thirdly, I believe we need to quit excusing the perpetrators. Monday morning, the articles will begin to try to determine where Mr. Wong's family, the American Civic Association, the Shop Vac Company, his religious leader, or the government went wrong. Experts will be interviewed. Individuals and institution will be excoriated. Regulations and legislation will be passed to make sure this never happens again. Unfortunately, the only people who will be restricted by the changes will be the people who are going about living their lives at peace with themselves, their neighbors and God. Those ticking time bombs among us will not change the way they interact, they will not take the sensitivity classes, and they will break the new laws. This happened because Mr. Wong like all of us was a flawed man. The unfortunate thing is he, being unable to deal with his failure, or anger, made choices that retarded his soul, rather than choices that redeemed him. There are lots of lessons to learn from this and lots of people who can learn them, but there is only one person to blame, only one person who deserves punishment, and further restriction of his rights, and he, sadly, is dead-- the ultimate looser
You've got a lot of interesting thoughts in there, Glenn! I recently encountered the "children shouldn't keep score because then someone will lose and feel bad" and it was really frustrating to me. Thanks for thinking and writing!
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