In horror and disbelief
Once again, the country and I personally, are in horrors, shock and disbelief that yet another tragedy has unfolded at the Jewish Synagogue in Pittsburgh. People were practicing their faith in peace and harmony when an angry, self-righteous person entered and began slaying people without mercy.
As these shootings occur across the country it makes feelings of helplessness and hopelessness increase, as the only efforts that I have seen to stop these shootings is for companies to make bullet proof barricades and bullet proof backpacks for schools. Thus is called, hardening the target, which is only about 30 percent effective in stopping these tragedies.
It would be much more effective if at a local grass roots level an effort would begin teaching compassion in all of our schools and other settings. It is not mental illness that causes these problems, although many people want to blame that. The most frequent connection between mental illness and violence is that many mentally ill people are more likely the victims of violence. This is the result of anger, rage which produces a desire to attack and obliterate whoever the anger is directed at. The only effective anecdote to anger is learning the core value of compassion. I have been sending the message of teaching compassion for over 15 years. I have reached out to the papers, the televisions and radio as well as Presidents and Governors. I have had some people say to me that it is an interesting idea, but no one has EVER asked to develop an effective ongoing program of teaching compassion as I have in the field of domestic violence treatment. It is also true that in the short run, by providing more training for people to look at the signs of shootings about to happen, we could prevent many of these tragedies from occurring. The synagogue shooter posted his intentions on a website making known what he was going to do. If there was some way these could be screened and passed on to authorities. Everybody who is doing something does let out clues before it happens. In any event, this is very, very sad, emotionally grueling event once again. It is also a serious blot against our government officials who stand by and do very little to prevent these tragedies from occurring.
— Ronald J. Coughlin, Ed.D.,
Mercerville