Where are we headed?

As I sat in my Intro to Education class on Monday morning and heard something that I had never expected to hear. In North Carolina, a man walked into a nursing home and killed 8 people. My instructor, Amy Anderson, told us that one lady covered her face because she didn't want to watch the man kill her.


My heart fell as I listened to this story. What kind of sick, twisted monstor does something like this? These people are 80-90 years old and this man thinks that they will be able to defend themselves against his treachery. I just simply could not believe it!


I know that I am supposed to focus my blog on Arts and what not, but I am also allowed to speak on Culture, and I believe this is a cultural issue unlike any other.

I pose you this question: Where are we headed? Where is our culture going if a man will walk into a nursing home and kill 8 innocent people?


And where are we heading when a murderer gets sympathy for it? When I was looking for information about this, I found an article saying that the gunman had cancer. Does this make it right? But also, what is the right way to respond to this situation? Murder to deal with murder? Where is the Meander Right? The Right to a Trial by Peers. That has been replaced by an officer with a gun.


Our society is going to a place where no one is ever going to be safe. Our discussion in my class on that morning then brought us to deciding what a school could be called:

• Daycare
• Social Institute
• Knowledge Facility
• Jail

Safety is something that our country used to pride itself on, but as of late, there is a serious lack going around.

"Sunday's incident was the third major shooting in the south-eastern US this month. On 10 March, a 28-year-old man killed himself, his mother and eight others in a shooting spree in Alabama. Days later, a Cuban immigrant killed his estranged wife and three others in Miami before taking his own life."

What does this lead to? As individual citizens of the United States, should we begin to focus on what is really important? Let us all go back to second grade: We have the teacher preaching up there, "You have certain needs. Love and Belonging..." When our second graders have a better idea of friendship and belonging than our adults, we know there are issues.

It comes down to doing our part. Remember Abraham Maslow? He integrated a hierarchy of needs into American Education. And just as it should be, love and belonging falls right after safety. Ultimately, that is the need that we do not have: Safety.

How do we fix this? We start to care. We start to understand and accept. As a culture, we can all start to realize that people are people, no matter what the color of their skin or the number of years they have lived. Life is too precious and when one man can take another's, where does that leave us.

I am reminded of a set of dialogue from the 2004 Blockbuster iRobot.

Detective Del Spooner: What if I'm right?
Lt. John Bergin: [sighs] Well, then I guess we're gonna miss the good old days.
Detective Del Spooner: What good old days?
Lt. John Bergin: When people were killed by other people.

Let's get away from this. In North Carolina, they have a way to go, but as a world, we can head ourselves in the right direction.