Re: "10 Dead in Shooting at High School"

5.19.18

To the editor:

As the details of yet another tragic school shooting unfold (NYT, 10 Dead in shooting at high school, 5.19.18), a predictable narrative, highlighting with '20:20 hindsight' the mentally deranged state of the shooter, Dimitrios Pagourtzis, will likely follow.  The signs are already there: wearing a 'Born to Kill' t-shirt, an apparent attraction to music adopted by neo-Nazi groups and the alt-right. He will be demonized and there will be calls for improved mental health services; an unobjectionable idea in principle that cynically shifts attention away from gun control.

We have failed as a society to keep our children safe but the threat is not the conveniently often scapegoated, untreated mentally ill or the fringe, disenfranchised 'troubled' youth.  There will always be segments of the population who are deeply troubled who do not seek treatment.  The upsurge of nationalism and neo-Nazism in parts of Europe has not lead to the mass violence we have in the United States.

Our politicians have sold their souls with blood money from the NRA.  They have abdicated their responsibility as elected officials; shamelessly invoking God during each tragedy.  I have no faith that today's politicians can do what needs to be done.  But children across this country and across all demographics - rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, conservative and liberal, black and white - are growing up. Their courage to speak up and come together due to their shared history of trauma from gun violence may create the necessary common ground to effect change.  I hope so.

Respectfully

Larry S. Sandberg