Don't Lay Blame, Have Hope and Act On It

I, like everyone else, have spent a great deal of time over the past five days with my mind elsewhere. So many things bring my heart and mind to the brink of sadness, imagining how the left-behind in Newtown, Connecticut must feel. I cried openly as Josh Groban's I'll Be Home for Christmas played on the radio because I could not keep at bay the empathy for the twenty sets of parents whose babies were taken from them, not to mention all of the other families whose loved ones won't be Home.
I would be the last person to politicize a tragedy like this because, while I appreciate that the value of the discussion that has erupted surrounding gun-control and mental health care both in the U.S. and elsewhere, I don't think it is fair or helpful to choose one issue upon which to hang this tragedy. This is why I have gritted my teeth as shared posts have scrolled along my Facebook timeline, suggesting that the lack of religion in our schools is to blame for the actions of Adam Lanza. I understand that people need to make sense of these sorts of things in order to cope and grieve healthily. That said, to suggest that those of us who are not Christian are without spirituality and that this is the root of tragedies such as this is ignorant and irresponsible.
Just because I do not believe in one omniscient deity or attend church, does not mean I am without spirituality. The simple fact that I do not identify as Christian or Jewish or Muslim, does not mean I am not spiritual or that I believe in nothing. Neither does this mean that I live without scruples nor does it leave me at risk of deteriorating into a immoral degenerate. Further to that, the lack of Christianity in our schools does not doom our children to this fate either. Those of us who work in schools encourage spirituality in our students, but we call it respect for others, self and the world around us. We encourage our students to provide service to those in need, to always do their best, to treat the world around them with care and that they are loved unconditionally. We work at molding respectful, generous, forward-thinking, self-respecting people, no matter what house of worship they attend.
To say that what happened in Newtown, Connecticut or Taber, Alberta or Dublane, Scotland or Columbine, Colorado was as a result of the removal of Christianity from the public school system is a cop-out. Christianity, or any organized religion for that matter, is not necessary in order to produce healthy, contributing citizens with character and integrity. People like this are produced by other people like this. Unfortunately, not everyone is being raised or taught by people like this. We all need to take responsibility for what has happened in these places. We need to identify both pro-active and reactive strategies for providing better services, be they financial, social, medical, educational or otherwise, to those who need them. While I obviously didn't perform any of these horrendous acts, I do feel like I have sat idly by in a society which has allowed money to become the ultimate deity and has placed it ahead of everything else, most importantly our overall well-being as a society. When tragedies like this happen, we have to take a long, hard look at how we can keep it form happening again, not point fingers at each other. We need to be ready to completely overhaul our systems, both literal and belief, in order to intervene before things get completely out of control. Without question, there would be challenges, but I think the growing pains would be worth it.
In closing, for anyone wondering, I believe in humankind. I believe in improving life here on earth for those here and those to come through acts big and small. I believe that if we all had hope and trust in ourselves as a species, as a group of beings living and growing together and acted on that hope, we could do amazing things. I try to live every day with that hope for us in my heart and act on it any chance I get. I don't have the warm glow of a heavenly afterlife to lead me through this crazy existence, but I use the world around me - my students, my children, my family and friends and pets and co-workers and strangers and the great wide world we live - that's my fuel.