How Do We Make It Stop?

A couple of days ago, bombs were detonated at the finish line of the Boston Marathon, killing 3 and injuring over 180 others. There have been many questions asked about this and other domestic attacks on innocent people. The masses want to know who, what, when, where & why. In this, the day & age of information and easy access, everyone demands to know…HOW can this happen?

The easy answer is…no one knows. Obviously there are psychological issues going on here. Despite whatever reason the killer or bomber give, there are ALWAYS psychological issues. In THEIR minds, they have a cause. But think about it…how easy is it to have a thought so psychologically disturbing that you immediately push it to the dark recesses of your mind, hoping to never think that thought again? And the thought you had? You’re not the only person thinking it. You just happen to know how to deal with it. But there are some people out there who watch a movie, or see a television show, or who have internet access who have seen things that are so disturbing, so provocative and then they are abused or molested or mistreated in some form and so…they have a thought. It starts as a seed but then it grows and before you know it, a young man is walking into an elementary school with enough gun power to start a small war or bombs are planted inside a building housing hundreds of normal, everyday people who are simply going to work. And this doesn’t just happen in America. This happens everywhere. The idea of TERRORISM is to scare us, to make us uneasy, to disrupt our lives, making it difficult for us to even want to leave our homes.

I can’t even begin to imagine what a family who has suffered through the loss of one of their children must be dealing with. I can’t begin to imagine what a community must go through to pick up the pieces of a mass killing at a local movie theater. I can’t begin to wonder how a community can put on its shoes and begin shifting through the rubble of a destroyed building, finding cell phones and filing cabinets and body parts scattered all over the street. These things I pray I will never have to endure. But people do and then they are hurt and angry and confused. But then you know what happens? Life goes on. And even though the memory of the deceased NEVER go away, we have no choice but to move forward.

But we want to know…why? Why would someone do such a horrible thing? So we wait while hundreds put the pieces together and find whoever caused such despair and then we want action. We want that person brought to justice. We want something to happen to make the pain stop but it doesn’t. Even after the criminal is caught or kills himself or gives himself up, the pain never really goes away. But we NEED to know WHY?

Here’s a thought…we will NEVER truly know why. Here’s another thought…we don’t really WANT to know WHY. Because to truly understand WHY would mean we could be that dark also. The horrific thoughts that our brain has the capability to process and then hide away would be brought to light and we don’t REALLY want that. It’s not who we are. We may have terrible thoughts but we would never act on them. But there are some who just can’t push those thoughts aside. There are some who are willing to build a bomb in their basement, willing to load automatic weapons, fly planes into buildings, send drones into helpless communities, push a big red button. There are those who do not care one way or another how their actions affect the lives of others. They don’t care about the children the kill. They don’t care about the lives they affect. They don’t care about the repercussions of their actions. In MY opinion, all they want are attention. And so…with that…I give you MY solution to all of this. How do we make it stop?

Stop the presses.

Stop the media coverage.

Stop pasting the faces of the killers all over the newspapers and television shows and the internet.

When the asshole (or assholes) who detonated the bombs in Boston are captured, give them their trial. Once they are tried and found guilty, I say we throw them in a prison, lock the door and throw away the key. Literally drop the key into a grate and forget they’re there. No food, no windows, no contact with the outside world. And that would be that. Is it barbaric? I don’t know…no more barbaric than what they have done. No more barbaric than electrocuting them or injecting their bodies with a drug that will allow them to die peacefully. And it wouldn’t cost us anything. And once they’ve passed, burn their bodies and that would be that. But here’s the catch…the only ones that are allowed to see the face or faces of the people who did this are the ones whose lives have been turned upside down. Only the families of Martin Richard, the 8-year old who was killed in the Boston bombing, and the other 2 families of the deceased should be allowed to see the killer’s face. As a public forum, I believe all we need to know is that the killer has been brought to justice and then leave it be. Because, by pasting the picture of the Adam Lanza’s of the world all over every media outlet in the world, we are enabling other idiots who have similar thoughts.

Want to be famous? Make a statement? Teach others how TERRIBLE you can be? Kill others and become famous. Your face will forever be remembered by millions and then you will live forever!

Think I’m wrong? I can guarantee you this thought is one that EVERY mass murderer has had. It’s in our DNA to WANT to be accepted. We WANT to be famous. Just turn on your tv and you see it everywhere! Everyone wants their 15 minutes of fame! Whether it’s getting hit in the face with a pie, singing karaoke on one of the gazillion musical tryouts posing as entertainment or even scoring your own 23 minute show by being a redneck, we ALL want to be famous! So…what better way to get attention quickly than by killing the innocent?

Obviously there are more psychological issues to it than that but at the root of it, I believe the need to be important drives ALL of these mass killings. Whether it’s al Qaeda, Jimmy Hoffa, or Timothy McVeigh, it’s all about attention.

I say we don’t give it to them.

Turn off the televisions. Stop posting the pictures. Once they’ve been tried, throw them in a dark room and call it a day. If anything, this will serve as a warning to anyone else having the thought of killing someone that it doesn’t matter what you do or how many you kill, you will NOT be immortalized. Whoever set off the bombs in downtown Boston should never be seen again. Once the FBI and the CIA and the local police departments corner the coward who decided it was a good idea to do such a horrific thing, they should be tried and then, upon the vote of a jury, if found guilty, they should be left to rot without a roar but with a whimper.

Will this stop it from happening again? I don’t know. But it might cause someone who has a horrible idea to pause and consider their actions. You WON’T be famous. You WON’T be immortalized. You WILL disappear without a trace. And we, as a society, as a community, as a united body, will move forward. We will deal with the grief and the pain. We will deal with the anger and the confusion. But we will move forward and eventually, we will forget you and remember only those that died because of you.

It’s maybe not a perfect plan, I admit…but it’s better than what we’re doing at this point. Well…at least it is in my opinion. And that and a nickel will get you very little these days…

ADDITIONAL THOUGHT: After taking a few moments to consider this post, I had another thought. Maybe, instead of posting pictures of the killers, we post photos of those that were killed in their wake. In this way, we will always remember those innocents who were killed in senseless acts of terror. To honor this idea, here are a few of those that I wish to remember on this day…

MAY THEY NEVER BE FORGOTTEN