Tragedy

It shouldn’t come as a shock anymore, especially since the US has pretty liberal rules regarding possession of guns and weapons and over the years, there had been many instances of such tragedy. But it still did shock. I’m referring to the very recent massacre at Virginia Tech where 33 lives were lost. What a tragedy indeed. All those promising adults who would never see the world again. All those innocent lives now gone forever, taking whatever intellectual knowledge and untested ideas with them. The heartbreak the parents of those students must have gone through, yes, including the gunman’s parents too, I’m sure, wondering what went wrong that their son turned out to be like that. The trauma suffered by other students and even the university lecturers, witnesses to the bloodbath.

I was reminded of the time I visited the War Remnants Museum in Ho Chi Minh. All those young adults killed, young children orphaned, in short, the suffering endured by the Vietnamese against the brutal American forces. It was a sobering experience as I gazed at the photographs of the injured, hunted and killed [not necessarily in that order], those suffering from the effects of the chemicals [Agent Orange], and even tortured prisoners.

It just drives home the fact that violence and war is unnecessary, senseless, ugly and downright brutal.

Just like the participants of The Amazing Race: All-Stars said when they visited Auschwitz: ‘Just being there on those tracks your imagination just rolls. People being unloaded like cattle. That's the last time a lot of them saw each other,’ and ‘What came to mind was all the books that never got written. All the ideas that were never tried. Generations were murdered. You can't forget that. God forbid it should ever happen again.’

Unfortunately of course, we can’t always shelter ourselves and protect loved ones from the big, bad world. Somewhere, somehow, there may just be that crazy person around the corner dissatisfied with his life and decided you should go too with him. Or the driver who had one drink too many and crashed into innocent pedestrians. [And of course, there are also things beyond our control like air crash, sinking ships and natural disasters.]

I believe what one needs is just enough parental love and care to take him through adolescence and adulthood, support from family and friends [and maybe sometimes also community and society acceptance for some] to get through the obstacles of life, and of course, belief in God. Apparently, the VT gunman was a loner who was disillusioned about his religion, among other things, and ranted against rich kids.

Sometimes even seemingly simple acts such as befriending someone, lending a helping hand, and reaching out to those in need and even sparing a smile can help save such troubled persons from their problems.

As always, I shall leave my affairs to God. Violence will not stop – after all, it began as early as thousands of years ago when Qabil killed Habil [both the sons of Prophet Adam (pbuh)] – but it can be lessened if we will only stop and think how we can do our part in contributing towards a safer and more peaceful world.