How much do we in America value the lives of our youth? As the French government unintentionally revealed four days ago, we don’t value life enough. On Monday March 20, unprovoked gunman opened fire at a Jewish school in Toulous, France and killed three students and a rabbi. Late that day, French President Nicolas Sarkozy released a statement calling the shooting a “national tragedy,” and according to NYTimes reporters StevenErlanger and Scott Sayare, Sarkozy “ordereda minute’s silence at schools across France at 11 a.m.”
This nationally sanctioned pause from the day, although very small, shows that the French nation really values life and the journey it affords the person. More than anything, this action shows that the members of the French nation value the lives of their children and are willing to unite—if only for a minute—to pay homage to a child tragically slain. Nothing similar to this occurred, however, when Chardon High School students died last month in a school shooting last month in Ohio, news coverage swirled around the topic for hours. That was it. President Obama released no statement acknowledging the situation and no apparent resolution, or attempt for resolution, was provided for the community of Chardon, OH. Sure, CNN, ABC, and others responded quickly and accurately to the situation.
We as a nation responded greatly from a news standpoint; however, we barely responded from a human standpoint. It is sad to see this, for it alludes to a sad, crippling reality that our nation is moving towards. The American culture is becoming more and more desensitized to tragic, unwarranted violence. Instead of looking at things with a human or emotional lens, we analyze things very systematically. Something is ethically and cognitively wrong with this innate reaction to unnecessary and unpredicted violence. This scares me, and hopefully this scares you as well.
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