This terrible thing happened in Paris. There was massive loss of innocent lives. It was senseless. People were gunned down for the simple crime of being out on a Friday night. It's tough to process this, more so because so many of us have been to Paris, know people from Paris, or have French family. There's not really anything these victims could have done to avoid their fates. They could have been any of us or our family members.
In the face of such incomprehensible heartbreak, we have become oddly polarized. Gun rights activists have started screaming about how this wouldn't have happened if the citizens of Paris were armed. I have started to realize that there's some magical thinking involved in gun rights rhetoric. It's much easier to believe, "well this would never happen to me because I am armed," than to realize that this can happen to anyone.
The more troubling sentiment, to me, is the strange liberal one that we're somehow wrong in mourning with Paris. Parisians are European, and in making a big deal out of their tragedy, we are somehow lessening the tragedy faced by African and Asian countries every day. It's hard for me to see people I am usually on the same page with ideologically act so ridiculously.
I like to think that this comes from a very human place; that it's just easier to argue than it is to grieve. Still, I wish we could stick to arguing about Starbucks cups and not snipe at each other about the proper way to feel pain.
No comments:
Post a Comment