Noonan writes today:
"There seems to me a sort of broad national diminution of common sense in our country that we don't notice in the day-to-day but that become obvious after a story like this. Common sense says a person like Cho Sheng-hui, who was obviously dangerous and unstable, should have been separated from the college population. Common sense says someone should have stepped in like an adult, like a person in authority, and taken him away. It is only common sense that if a person like Cho leaves a self-aggrandizing, self-celebrating, self-pitying video diary of himself to be played by the mass media, the mass media should not play it and not publicize it, not make it famous. Common sense says that won't help."
Read her entire post.
I couldn't agree more. Where has common sense gone? And personal action in a crisis? Are there any take-charge grown-ups living in our society any longer?
Millions if not billions will be spent on studies on this massacre and why Cho did it. But common sense tells us we really already know, doesn't it? And we know some of the things we need to do in the aftermath. Don't we really?
One thing's for sure, unless we and the media stop--as in NBC's decision to roll the killer's manifesto by giving such attention to this psychotic man's rantings-- the feeding frenzy, there will only be more and more and even worse of the kinds of incidents we witnessed this week.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
It bothers me that these students are being referred to as children They are the same age as many of the soldiers fighting in Iraq as we speak. We must teach our kids personal responsibility in protecting themselves.As the article says, use common sense.
So glad you posted this. I agree whole heartedly with you and Peggy Noonan. I had to write about my concern and shock that not one young male adult even tried to stop the loon, even gave the gunman time to reload! How scary is that? Did none of the young adults in the classrooms have the desire to fight for life?
I think, many of our children and this generation have never wanted for anything, never had to fight for anything.
And so, they don't have the natural instincts to defend themselves and defeat evil when it confronts them. Many of our children suffer from way too much of the good life.
But as we see more and more of this, these young men and women may grow up faster than a speeding bullet.
Let's hope so. Too much of the good life only makes us weak and long on words and short on action.
Post a Comment