Wednesday, June 11, 2014

Reflections On The Troutdale Shootings--A New Norm For School?



It seems that it is almost impossible for a school shooting not to be on a News Alert
Isla Vista, Seattle, Troutdale just to name a few where students were killed or if lucky only hurt
In Oregon the shooter boarded the school bus with a duffel bag and Guitar case as if music to play
But the strings were an AR-15, the only notes were bullets by the score intent on making a choir of victims to slay
After learning of latest school shooting in Oregon, two teens meeting a far too early demise
One a freshman bystander only 14, the other the shooter 15 by his own hand dies,
Wondering what in heaven’s name is this world coming to with all these shootings on the rise
I read a study by a learned professor from the FBI murder stats that was a surprise
The number of mass shootings and victims is essentially a flat line trend
Even if the definitions of mass shootings one tries to bend
Any fatal shooting is a tragedy that leaves for family and friends
A huge gaping emotional hole of grief and sorrow that takes almost forever to mend
Before the internet, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Cable News, we lived in ignorant bliss
Living in L.A. a mass shooting in New York might be buried in a paper that we might miss
No longer in a 24/7 world where events are in real time
Hard to escape the latest shooting, the latest heinous crime
But although the trend line may be flat, our nation is very dangerous place
Our abandonment of the mentally ill is a total disgrace
While the First will not let you in a crowded theater yell “Fire”
Any discussions of limits on the Second are shot down in the rhetoric and expire
One does wonder if there is a lowering of the shooters’ average age
A truly deadly combo of lack of youthful judgment coupled with mental rage
Like the poor who we will have with us so will we have the mentally ill
Time to focus more on minds of the potential shooters to reduce the victims they might kill.
© June 11, 2014 Michael P. Ridley aka the Alaskanpoet

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