Bad things happen on planet Earth.\u00a0 Like last week… primarily according to USA Today:<\/p>\n
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Federal investigators believe Aaron Alexis cleared a security checkpoint with his contractor identification and carried a shotgun into building 197 at the Navy Yard in Washington D.C.\u00a0 Alexis reportedly began firing at people indiscriminately from an atrium overlook.\u00a0 After firing several rounds, Alexis ran down a flight of stairs where he confronted and shot a security officer. It is believed that Alexis took the officer’s handgun and returned to the overlook where he continued to shoot.\u00a0 13 people, including the shooter, died.<\/i><\/p>\n
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Like yesterday at a Kenyan shopping mall:<\/p>\n
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At least 59 people were killed and 175 injured during a Saturday afternoon shooting rampage at a shopping mall in an upscale district of Nairobi.\u00a0 The 5-10 gunmen carried AK-47s and other sophisticated weapons and wore vests with hand grenades on them.\u00a0 They also asked Muslims to leave before opening fire.<\/i><\/p>\n
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Bad things do happen.<\/p>\n
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In wake of the so-called \u201cbadness,\u201d many respond with immediate, perceived necessary solutions.\u00a0 On Monday, the Navy Yard shooting was only hours old when Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-CA) took to the microphones to call for increased gun control measures.\u00a0 \u201cWhen will enough be enough?\u201d <\/i>she asked.\u00a0 While Feinstein repeated details that were inaccurate but fueled the passion behind her plea \u2014 as many and the media are often apt to do, even though pausing would be prudent \u2014 she was not alone in her plea.<\/p>\n
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When bad things happen, we have a desire to fix it.\u00a0 We have a desire to ensure the bad things will never happen again.<\/p>\n
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On that note, the Intramuralist has great respect for Feinstein, etal. in their stated desire to curb violence.\u00a0 Who among us desires to see the innocent die?\u00a0 The challenge, no less, is whether or not the proposed solution is actually effective \u2014 or is more proposed and applied because it makes us feel<\/i> better; it makes us feel<\/i> as if we are doing something.<\/p>\n
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In the wake of last week\u2019s shooting, in multiple circles, I thus posed the following question:\u00a0 where does this \u201cbadness\u201d come from?\u00a0 Is it evil?\u00a0 Where does the evil come from?\u00a0 What, in fact, is evil?<\/p>\n
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The answers were fascinating…<\/p>\n
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Most would acknowledge an existence of evil, but few seemed comfortable with evil dwelling within a person.\u00a0 Some called the behavior of Aaron Alexis evil; still others said the identification of evil would be dependent on whether or not the gunman had a mental illness.\u00a0 If he had any mental deficiency, the evil \u2014 if it existed \u2014 rested in the hands of someone or something else, perhaps in the institution or people who allowed him to have a gun in his hands.<\/p>\n
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My conclusion from this certainly unscientific polling is that we\u2019re not comfortable with the idea of evil, and when we do utilize the label, we seem to do so inconsistently and subjectively.\u00a0 We don\u2019t like it.<\/p>\n
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Bad things happened on planet Earth last week.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t like it.<\/p>\n
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Respectfully,<\/p>\n
AR<\/p>\n
Bad things happen on planet Earth.\u00a0 Like last week… primarily according to USA Today: Federal investigators believe Aaron Alexis cleared a security checkpoint with his contractor identification and carried a shotgun into building 197 at the Navy Yard in Washington D.C.\u00a0 Alexis reportedly began firing at people indiscriminately from an atrium overlook.\u00a0 After firing … <\/p>\n