By Michele Leight
April, 2007, New York City - The blossoms have begun to fill out
the bare branches of the trees in Central Park, a riot of magnolia,
dogwood, forsythia and tiny new leaves, so fresh they evoke thoughts
of "youth." There are nursery school children running
in circles, teenage boys playing softball, young girls with flowing
hair and bright smiles, dogs, strollers and babies everywhere.
Birdsong mingles with cries of children at play.
I never take these idyllic scenes for granted, or lose sight of centuries' worth of hard work, laws, enlightened preservation and activism that allow me to enjoy this beauty and freedom because I know how precious it is. I have seen those who do not have it. I know there are some places in the world where peace and beauty like this is only a dream.
It is humbling to listen to birdsong, enjoy natural beauty, and to know that dreadful, inexplicable horrors can occur without warning, like the massacre at Virginia Tech, where innocent lives were lost for no reason. Young students, whose lives were just beginning to bloom, like the flowers in this glorious park, cut down by a fellow student, who clearly had issues that required serious attention long before his fuse snapped. Perhaps such acts will create positive change in the future, so that a student as troubled as this young man is not left to circulate among innocent young people, at huge risk to others and to himself.
My thoughts turn to a heroic life that survived the depravity of the Holocaust, only to lose it in a violent spray of bullets through a classroom door in the utopian beauty of a college campus in Virginia. On the evening news, the slain professors grieving son offered inspiring words about his father from Israel, where he was buried after the shooting. His son was a former student at Virginia Tech, and proudly wore his college sweatshirt for the TV interview. I hope we do more to protect such wonderful people in the future. If it requires bullet proof doors in classrooms across America, so be it.
It is painful to think of all those innocent people who did not harm anyone, or seek to harm anyone, now gone. Extreme violence does not make sense, yet it is always lurking under the surface. One has only to open a newspaper or turn on the TV to find manifestations of violence. History has so many examples, some recent, others ongoing: the Holocaust, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur. Many of us have children or know children the same age as the Virginia Tech students who lost their lives. This could have happened to our children, anywhere in America - or the world.
Violence is a reminder that there are deeply troubled roots in some people, and in society itself, that will not go away and can erupt without warning. Perhaps it happens because the avenger has reached the end of an invisible rope and we missed the warning signs.
Some acts of violence cannot be prevented, but there were many warning signs at Virginia Tech. Perhaps now, when a student shows such disturbing behavior that prompts an alarmed teacher to dismiss him from her creative writing class, the faculty and administration will be empowered to take immediate action, for the safety of everyone.
Perhaps this tragic incident will ensure that there will be far greater campus security moving forward that can respond to a gunman even before law enforcement arrives on the scene. Maybe it is possible to use technology to isolate a gun shot anywhere on a campus as soon as it occurs, calculate its exact location, and instantly trigger alarms via text messages or loudspeakers that warn those at risk so they have some hope of protecting themselves. We fly men and women to the moon. Surely we can come up with protective solutions to prevent some of these tragedies on earth?
Students and teachers may face less risk
of becoming victims of violence if they are armed with "self-protection"
strategies that become as much a matter of habit as other health
and life- preserving habits, like fire drills and immunizations
against dangerous diseases. It should not be possible for a lone
gunman to take total control of a classroom filled with people,
or terrorize a dorm or college and commit murder, as just happened
at Virginia Tech. We need to actively support and encourage on
site security on sprawling campuses that can react instantly.
Unfortunately that is what it has come down to, and it cannot
and should not be avoided.
Most people do not want to be violent or live surrounded by violence. There is a universal longing for peace and stability that is shaken to the core when violence manifests it self, because it obscures everything we value. Sadly, sometimes violence is allowed to continue elsewhere because if does not directly affect us and so we do not pay attention to it. It continues to corrode and cut down the lives of others because we are busy with our own lives and removed from their pain and suffering. That is why it is so frightening when it suddenly erupts without warning on an idyllic campus in Virginia: a place where such things are not supposed to happen. It could be our place, or home or our college campus.
There is consolation in the outpouring of good that manifests itself even while terrifying violence is being committed, and in the aftermath of violence, like the acts of heroism, selflessness, and courage of professors and students, followed by the vigils, memorials, shrines, prayers, candles, and songs for those who lost their lives. If there were none of these manifestations of humanity's innate reverence for love and peace, such horrors would be insurmountable.
The young are especially shaken by acts of violence because they are trusting, and because they have no way of knowing that life and people are not always perfect. The young cannot know that people can be so deeply disturbed they may be quietly plotting to kill them, even if they did nothing to provoke them. We owe it to the young to teach them to protect themselves against deadly predators with hidden agendas, on campus, and when they go out to crowded clubs, bars and concerts - favorite hangouts of people with hidden agendas.
Gathered together in a mass, optimistic, trusting college students are fair game for disturbed individuals, who might even be fellow students, who know that most young people want to believe the best of others, not the worst. No matter how optimistic and hopeful we might be; no matter how perfect, peaceful and beautiful a place appears to be on the surface, there is always the possibility of danger and violence erupting and we need to protect the young from that vantage point. We cannot hope it will not happen and remain unprepared.
Central Park is beautiful in these daylight hours, as these photographs show, with law enforcement near by, and hundreds of people everywhere, but terrible murders and acts of violence have been committed here, often in broad daylight. There are homes where young people are abused in secrecy while other family members and neighbors do nothing. They might be living next door. The more we look for warning signs and act on them, the more hope there is of preventing harm.
Spring is also the anniversary of Maxine's death, a young woman I wrote about in "A Fathers Story," on this website, and in my book "Harvest of Innocence." Beautiful Maxine ended up in a relationship with the wrong man who reeled her in under the banner of love at the age of 22. She did not know he was a drug dealer and he got her hooked on heroin, a notoriously difficult addiction to kick. Addiction brings with it another form of violence, when the addict is so dependent on a person for drugs to get their fix they are often controlled, abused and forced to do dangerous things. Sharing needles during intravenous drug use is a lethal transmitter of AIDS, among other diseases.
That is how Maxine became infected with AIDS, and addiction prevented her from taking her meds responsibly, which would have stabilized her health and allowed her to live a lengthier life. Without that protection AIDS destroyed her young immune system and she suffered terribly. Despite the loving efforts of her father, who cared for her till the end, Maxine died young. Her father wishes she had been educated and better prepared in her youth about the addictiveness of drugs.
Millions of young people across the globe are at similar risk, from not knowing. Many more young people need to be warned, taught and protected with information much earlier because of the kind of predators that are out there today - skilled, and focused on the innocent and unwary. A deadly combination.
Whether it is through gratuitous violence like the massacre at Virginia Tech, or the ravages of a deadly virus and illness brought on by drug predators, it is especially tragic when the young and innocent pay the price. They are in my thoughts and silent vigils as spring unfolds in New York. Perhaps we will do more to protect and prepare those at risk in the days and months ahead.
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