Someone had posted asking if this could be discussed in the General Discussion area of the forum. The short answer is: Absolutely.
BUT we need to keep the political debate out of this thread, and that includes the gun control debate or commentary about gun laws. That is all fair for discussion in the Political/Religious subforum only. The forum rules and clear, and I am going the extra mile to start the thread myself and clearly set expectations right up front, so there is no excuse. Please don't go there. This thread is about discussing the events themselves and how people are copying with this tragic event and others like it. Please keep it respectful and on track.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
That said, I posted this in the thread in P/R and thought it would make a good jumping off point for discussion. I felt this deserved to be re-posted on its own and not bogged down in the gun debate morass.
When I switched on my radio on the drive in to work today, there was a woman being interviewed who was there. I wish I had heard the whole thing. It was fantastic. I mean, it was tragic, and it literally brought tears to my eye. But there was one thing in particular that she said that really hit home to me that I think really needs to be emphasized. I will get to that in a minute. First let me give some context.
I believe the woman's name was Heather. I didn't catch her last name, unfortunately. She was in the crowd during the shooting. A guy near her that she didn't know was hit and killed. I didn't get all the details of that because, as I said, I had tuned in toward the end of it. But she was talking about how she knew he had died and was alone, so she dug out his wallet to find out his name (it was Jordan something--I didn't pick up the last name). She was able to find him on Facebook (on her phone, I assume) while she was still sitting out there. I guess she was able to determine from some posts that he was there with his girlfriend, so she contacted the girlfriend, who was about a block away, but could not get there because of the lockdown. She also searched and found the only other people on Facebook with the same last name, and was able to contact his parents. Heather told the girlfriend and the parents what had happened, cried with them, and promised them that she would stay with Jordan's body and not let anything happen to him, and that she would keep them informed. She then stayed there with the body of this stranger, alone, until 3:30 a.m. She didn't leave to take care of herself. She didn't go get some food. She stayed with the body of a stranger for hours. Just because it made the family and the girlfriend feel some small measure of comfort. She said--and this is what hit me--"I was involved, and at that point, I had a responsibility."
Those words just really struck me. I mean, this is going to sound cold, and it is meant to, but--from a purely practical, pragmatic point of view, her staying there for hours with someone she could do absolutely nothing for, when the authorities were already taking control of the situation and were in control, accomplishes nothing. And yet, she recognized that, from the perspective of a family and girlfriend who were hurting, it meant everything in that moment. She recognized that she had an obligation to them that arose simply out of the fact that they were human beings who had an emotional need that she could supply. I'm pretty sure that if she had gone about her business of taking care of herself after those initial few phone calls, it would not have even occurred to anybody to hold it against her. The family and girlfriend STILL would have probably been grateful for her just finding them and calling them in the first place. But she did so much more. Just because she felt that she had a responsibility.
I really wish more of us would take this message to heart. We have a responsibility to one another, simply because we are human beings. That is the embodiment of so many Biblical teachings and really just cuts to the core of how we should all try to interact with one another. The more I thought about it, all the hopelessness over the political bickering, the finger pointing, the moralizing and politicizing just kind of fell away for me. None of that is what is really important. We need to just realize that we all have a responsibility to one another. We are our brothers' (sisters') keepers.
I'm going to try to find that interview later and have my kids listen to it and have a talk with them about it. I think it says so much more than perhaps Heather could have imagined.