School Shootings: Why do they happen? How can we prevent them?

Much media attention has been given to the fact that the school shootings have taken place in sleepy, prosperous, rural and suburban communities that are largely white. The unspoken implication is that such violence would be at home in the inner city, but that it is an alien invader in the suburbs.

Yet, by their very existence, suburbs are the result of several disturbing moral choices:

1. The choice to run away from problems (i.e. the problems of the city)
2. The choice to exclude those who are different (the “white flight” origins of most suburbs)
3. The choice to pursue material comfort as a primary goal
4. The choice to repress conflict
5. The choice to focus narrowly on one's own interests (i.e. the “Not In My Backyard” phenomena)

To paraphrase the late Malcolm X, the chickens will come home to roost. The self-destructive trends that plague our society could not be trapped in the inner city forever. We can run, but we cannot hide. We must face our own evils head-on.

We have failed in our collective responsibility to take care of one another. We need to focus in on the needs of humanity as a whole. This is the moral imperitive in front of us. Until we do so, we will be a nation that can offer its children nothing beyond empty values and hypocrisy.