Today the Washington Post published (p. S3, style) a book review of a collection of pieces by people who lived through mass shootings,
titled “If I Don’t Make It, I Love You”, from Skyhosre, link, edited by Amye
Archer and Loren Kleinman, 492 pages.
The book is in reverse time order, with a piece by Fred Guttenberg
from Marjory Stoneman Douglas, and goes all the way back to the University of
Texas at Austin in 1966.
The reviewer (Katherine Coldiron) points out that mass
shootings were uncommon until after 1997, when in December the high school
shooting at Heath High School in Paducah Kentucky happened. Columbine would
follow in April 1999. It’s true that
Waco and OKC had happened in April in previous years. But with the new culture of the Internet, it
seemed that some people found provocation they wouldn’t have experienced
earlier.
We don’t have much of an answer for the victims of this,
like we do for men lost in combat in war.
It sounds like it has become a matter of sacrifice. There is a tremendous asymmetry in the risks
people have to take.
No comments:
Post a Comment