Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Shocking?

The tragedy in Newtown:  people said it was "devastating" and "shocking" and couldn't stop posting about it.  I didn't get it.  I mean, obviously I get that it was horrible, but it certainly didn't seem completely unexpected, given the frequency of mass shootings.  But my response seems so at odds with that of many around me (I am currently in Arizona).  Is that because I've been hanging out with non-American expats (primarily French and Belgian) in Haiti that are not surprised to hear of these things happening in the US, what with our lax gun laws and lack of health care coverage (including mental health care)?

I started to wonder if I was perhaps just getting immune to tragedy, with floods and cholera and other disasters and diseases coming one after the other in Haiti without safety nets or funds for adequate risk prevention.  And those things are happening to people I know personally, to my friends and their families. 

Or was it because I have been living overseas for five years and am more distanced from events here in the US?  Or perhaps was I not so affected because Connecticut is geographically far away?  But I'd just been horrified by the fire in a Bangladesh garment factory that killed 112 people.   Of course, I felt partially involved in that event since I had recently broken my decades-long ban on Walmart (I've always been aware that there's a reason why Walmart can sell merchandise so cheaply, I just tried to push those thoughts aside since the Walmart is the closest store where I'm currently living). 

Was it because I am painfully aware that I pay (via my tax dollars) to kill children overseas?


I don't know.