3686 Reaction 1

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

"If two men agree on everything, you may be sure that one of them

is doing the thinking."

-- Lyndon B. Johnson --

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The next few posts will be a bit disjointed (ok, more disjointed than usual) because my thoughts aren't very organized.

I don't know how to say this without sounding cold, but I really don't understand the overreaction of some people to tragedy, selected tragedies.  After Friday's school shootings, a lot of people - not just in the US, all over the world - were crying and wailing and beating their chests.  They seemed to take it very personally, very internally, and I don't understand that.  Sympathy for the parents and families, ok.  Anger that so many little lives were cut short, ok.  Empathy for what those babies must have gone through, ok.  A desire to know WHY, so we can fix it, ok.  That I understand.  I feel that too. 

But I don't understand the excessive (in my mind) reaction of so many people.

Instead, it ticks me off a little that all that passion is reserved only for tragedies that happen to people who are just like them.  Did they react that way when almost 20,000 people were killed by the Japanese tsunami, and many more will die in the future from radiation?  Do they shed tears for the thousands of children in war/drought/famine torn parts of Africa dying of disease, hunger, thirst, or those who have had their hands or legs chopped off by machete-wielding rebels?  Or for the orphans in displaced-persons camps all over the world who freeze to death every winter?

No, because those people are not like them?  No, because some disasters are unlikely to happen to them, so they react only to those that might happen to them?  If that's the reason, then is their reaction sympathy for the victims, or is it actually fear for themselves?
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http://www.freerangekids.com/i-want-to-share-the-pain-help-me-figure-out-why/
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