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Journalism of Courage
It8217;s happened once again. When two teenaged Rambos choreographed a danse macabre in a Denver school on Tuesday morning, leaving 16 dead and a nation hysterical with shock and disbelief, it was as much a comment on the violence-laced nature of contemporary reality, as a signpost to a fissured future. Children faithfully mirror the aberrations of adult society with its disintegrating values and it8217;s they, after all, who will shape the future.
If two white men in a southern American town could have strapped a Black man to the back of their pick-up truck and dragged him through the streets until his head rolled off nearly 35 years after Martin Luther King8217;s dream of racial equality, is it really any surprise that the youngsters who targeted the Columbine High School fancied themselves as anti-Black vigilantes? They reserved much of their gunfire for the Blacks and Hispanics among the schoolchildren. The tragedy is also a comment on the nature of American exceptionalism. While those who excel in public arenas like the sportsfield become instant heroes, many are left out of the warm gaze of public adulation to stew in their own insecurities and hatreds. While most youngsters cope with this situation as best as they can or are fortunate to have a more secure family background to help them negotiate bumps on the road to adulthood, some look for other sources of self-esteem, whether it is in a music that glorifies the rule of the knife, or strangeavenging cults that make hatred an article of faith. The latest shooting spree, coming as it does after a string of similar incidents, reveals the pernicious effects of this rage within. But it8217;s the easy availability of firearms and ammunition that results in this insane anger being given free expression. There are many in the US today who argue that owning a gun is an expression of personal freedom. Indeed, societies like the National Rifle Association, supported in turn by powerful gun manufacturing lobbies, have eloquently and passionately defended such arguments.
