This letter to the editor of my local paper was one of my earliest pieces of public writing, provoked by a series of school shootings which are now so common place as to be listed on Wikipedia.
Yesterday’s attack on Democratic Representative Giffords (at a grocery store!) resulted in the death of a 9 year old girl (among others), and is yet another wake up call–this time with regard to the inciting nature of our country’s political discourse.
Whose responsible for the attack? We all are. Just as I was responsible for my toddler’s exposure to killing as a form of entertainment.
See below.
To the Editor
I was glad to see the issue of violence in schools addressed in the health column last week. I appreciated the related commentary he shared from Vermont Public Radio. In reflecting on the number of shootings in schools across our country, I too felt the “wake up call.”
Now that murder has found its way into our classrooms, we can no longer “distance” ourselves from the effects of the violence that is so much a part of the outside world. The VPR commentator spoke of a new commitment to getting violence out of our children’s lives. As a parent and educator, I fully agree, but I think it is ironic that we work so hard to monitor our children’s world without changing our own.
Just this past week, my two-year old began talking about death and shooting. He picked that up from a clip of a movie my husband and I were watching over a month ago. It left a huge impression.
As a society, we are fooling ourselves if we think we can separate the world of adults from the world of children. The number of deaths in our country’s schools this past year is proof that this line no longer exists.
Kelly Salasin
Wilmington, Vermont, 1998
The Empty Nest Diary 
Yes, what happened to teaching the “Golden Rule” – “Do to others as you would have them do to you” “NOT do to others AS they do to you!” The Golden Rule is not about religion, it’s a Universal Rule for relationships in any civilization (as opposed to cave man days).
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Thank you Kelly, well said. I have long been concerned about school shootings and shootings in general.
I recently went to a seminar that gave a very different and insightful, but simple way of dealing with bullies. Instead of trying to control bullies, empower the victim to respond differently so that the bully can’t keep it up.
Many of the shootings at schools have been committed by “bullies” who were tired of being “victims”.
I encourage you to visit the website of this school psychologist from New York who I think is really dealing effectively with this issue. His name is Israel (Izzy) Kalman and his website is:
wwwbullies2buddies.com
He also uses humor very effectively in his roleplays and songs.
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Very well said.
My pastor has often raised the question of why we entertain ourselves with behavior that we would find unacceptable in our own lives.
It’s an interesting exercise in self-reflection.
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