We hate being the center of the national news when it means yet another school shooting. And we hate having to write this: What possible service can this news be to the Plain People of America? It most certainly is news, even though we detect a certain low-level anomie—even a perverse detachment developing, as each new shooting story trickles into the living rooms of an increasingly jaded public. Normally, these sorts of stories are justified in newsrooms under the “protect the children” code that all professional journalists learn today—there is much danger in the world, even (especially?) in its most isolated corners. We report on these sorts of tragedies in the hopes of averting future tragedies. Right?
But that would require some pragmatic answers to complex problems. (More security? Trigger locks? Outlaw video games and trench coats? Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ? Uh, no, we were thinking a bit more serious than that.) Instead, what we see is something of a circus of gory detail, the voyeuristic stenography (block that ironic headline, please) of reconstructing a crime scene, without a lot of analysis or thoughtful consideration. Most efforts to process such an incident are feeble, moralistic, empty, soft-headed. What is a reader or viewer left with? What is the take-away?
We can’t bear to read through the reams of sensational coverage (the silver lining of heinous news: Nice work, Bemidji Pioneer, drinks for everyone in the newsroom—after a tasteful moment of silence, of course), so we don’t really know what we’re talking about, frankly.
But one thing we did notice this morning was a humble little press release from the National Mental Health Association that linked to an important resource page: Bullying and What To Do About It. Here is a salient extract:
“Although its always been around, bullying should never be accepted as normal behavior. The feelings experienced by victims of bullying are painful and lasting. Bullies, if not stopped, can progress to more serious, antisocial behavior. Recent incidents of school violence show that bullying can have tragic consequences for individuals, families, schools, and entire communities.”
See, gaining a little insight into the news is a lot easier than anyone could hope.
We would never be so simple-minded as to suggest that certain geo-political situations bear any relationship at all to the insular, microcosmic, uniquely troubled world of the Red Lake reservation. But it makes a guy think.
If reporting terrible news actually made the world a better place, well, we should be on the threshold of an honest-to-God golden age. But all signs point in the other direction. Still, there are a few heroes of the dawning Post-American Sino-European world. (Pre-emptive rhetorical device: Forced to live? Or allowed to die? It’s how you frame the question, innit.)
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