EDITORIAL ROUNDUP
Oct. 7
Dallas Morning News
We pause to lament
Tragedy came to Arlington yesterday. Dozens of lives were forever changed because of the violent actions of one young man, if police suspicions hold true. There is much we still don’t know. It appears that four people were hurt, three of them seriously enough to be taken to hospitals, and that two of those victims were shot. Police gave us the name of a young man suspected in this case and said they believe the shooting erupted after a fight with another student.
All of those details remain preliminary and unconfirmed. Our reporters will work hard in the coming days to discover what exactly happened and who is responsible.
But at this point, the day after the event and before we know all the details, the most appropriate response for us to offer is the one found in the ancient practice of naming what has been lost.
We lament the loss suffered by the victims and their loved ones. We don’t know how great those losses will be, but lives have been forever changed. For students wounded in the gunfire yesterday, school went from “the place my friends are” to “the place the threats are.” It went from a place to get an education to a place to get shot.
We lament the same effect for students who weren’t physically wounded. Just as schools were welcoming back a cohort of kids beset by mental health challenges from online culture and pandemic isolation, yesterday’s terror further contributed to the gnawing sense of exposure and anxiety many of them feel.
We can be grateful too, that some 1,700 students escaped without physical harm. There is no such thing as a good outcome when someone starts shooting in a school, but yesterday’s violence could have wounded or killed more than it did.
And last, we are not too proud to mourn a ruined life. Yesterday’s events will follow the shooter forever.
There will be time in the coming days to investigate, to pursue justice, to press charges, to debate policy. The ink is ready for us to write those stories. But today’s story is about living, as the author of the biblical book of Lamentations wrote, “besieged and surrounded with bitterness and hardship.”