The article I wrote for this week's hall newsletter:
Can’t I Read The Newspaper Just Once Without Totally Losing My Faith In Humanity, Please?!
Welcome back to the Upper Quad, everyone! I’m pretty stoked to have you all back. I mean, I really, really enjoyed having an empty and quiet building for the last month, but it’s nice to have people around again. I’m a little bit excited to get back to work, too. I honestly really haven’t done much of anything for most of the break. I read some books. I shaved my face. I hung out with Norah. I contemplated the proper term for residents living in the Upper Quad (Upper Quadians? Quadites? ‘Da Quad Squad?). I also caught up on the news and current events. I’m a total news junkie, but I don’t always have time during the school year to read/watch as much news as I’d like. Unfortunately, not all of the news I read about over the break was very uplifting.
I’m sure you’ve all heard about the shooting in Arizona by now and know at least a little bit about the sadness of the situation. There are so many things I could say about this whole tragedy. Everyone wants to point their fingers after something like this happens. Everyone wants to make sense out of something that is entirely senseless, so they start blaming the media, the parents, and the political climate in order to feel better about something so horrific. But that seems a little senseless, doesn’t it? You can’t feel better about anything simply by figuring out who’s to blame for what’s upsetting you. It takes something more active than that to overcome the pain of it all.
Instead of trying to figure out who’s responsible for causing this incident, I’ve been more interested in reading about the people involved that chose to take action during the chaos. I read all about the 76 year old man who threw himself on top of his wife in order to protect her from the shooting (and died as a result). I read about the 20-year old congressional intern who ran towards the shooting after it began and who administered life-saving emergency treatment to Rep. Giffords who had been shot through the head in the minutes after the gunman had been subdued. While the country unanimously vilifies the gunman, these people are held high in all regards as heroes (and rightfully so).
There’s a reason we see these people as heroes. There’s a reason that the passengers on Flight 93 and the NYFD were nearly deified after 9/11. There’s a reason that we feel good when we hear about every-day people going out of their way to do something extraordinary.
While we’re horrified by the actions of those who would cause such pain and suffering to so many innocent people, knowing that there are those who would respond so selflessly to the danger of the situation is comforting. It’s good to know that there are just as many (or more) good people out there as there are bad. It’s good to know that the world isn’t a totally awful place and that there is goodness in humanity that can’t be overcome by the worst we have to offer.
The key to all of this, of course, is to recognize that it shouldn’t take a life-or-death tragedy scenario for us to decide that we should exercise that goodness we all possess. We shouldn’t have to face the worst before we give our best. We can do it on a daily basis and in small, localized ways. It may be as simple as just smiling at your neighbors. Maybe it means choosing to go and have a nice, civil conversation with someone you disagree with rather than resorting to snarky texts and/or Facebook statuses to get your point across. I don’t know… It’s up to you to see how you can actively be a positive community member in your daily life. I just hope that you do it this semester. We need it now more than ever, I think.
“Seek goodness everywhere, and when it is found, bring it out of its hiding place and let be free and unashamed.”
I got so smart by reading insightful, sensitive books that talk about emotions a lot. And so can you!
