 | |
| Michael Thurston/Agence France-Presse | — Getty Images |
Okay – I’ve heard about how upset we are at Rolling Stone for putting Dzhokhar Tsarnaev on their cover from every corner. Facebook posts, street protests, news articles and reports, even people actually talking about it!
But here – here! Listen – read – think for a minute about a point of view other than one that agrees with the particular emotional, and understandable, general public reaction. Let’s talk about another emotional reaction we are not as quick to face.
This kid’s face – this kid’s face – could be any of our children’s faces. His is not a hardened, easy-to-hate looking face. He was a student at our own UMass Dartmouth. He could be anybody’s son. That is the corker here.
We have seen countless faces of the victims, honored and mourned the lost, fundraised and supported the recovering. There is a huge effort going on to heal. And it will continue. But part of healing is dealing with the root cause, while healing the resulting damage.
We do not want to take a second look at the face of terrorism. We do not want to see an innocent looking young man’s face, look to see where this madness and pain came from and how it can hide so well behind the mask of normalcy. We do not want to be made to look at causes and roots so that we become more aware and better able to intervene and prevent. We do not want the responsibility of caring for society and our own safety and health by being involved and proactive when and where we are able to see risk. Let the “professionals” do that we say…and yet, the professionals do not walk the streets every day. Change does not come about from professional intervention, it comes from personal recognition. It is when the people on the street wake up and get involved and take responsibility for their future that we as a nation, town or community, change.
And so the need to understand and perceive, to look at this face once again and acknowledge it could be anyone’s child. To become familiar with the story behind the face. To be able to see the disgruntled, the lonely, the overwhelmed, the angry and in pain before they are at the point of explosion; and to be able to bring some healing, relief and help to those in silent screaming need before they seek self-expression and self-destruction through the destruction of others.
Look at his face. Pray for his soul, that it may not leave this earth in the same maniacal torment that expressed itself on April 15th. And let us learn. Learn how to see lonely, unhappy, overwhelmed people and young people. Learn how to defuse the human bomb before it expresses itself in outward violence, mass shootings, terrorism and murderous hate. We have a lot of societal growing up to do and responsibilities to learn. Let’s not shy away from the reflection needed to assimilate the lessons being taught by these increasing incidents of mass violence. Incident response always includes a review process for the purpose of improved prevention. This is more than friends and relatives shaking their heads and saying they are shocked and don’t understand how this could be the person they knew. It involves the community, not just the family. And the first step is learning to see where we have been blind. Looking at what we don’t want to see; the simple young face of a boy who could be anybody’s son, and yet he killed and maimed many people. We need to be learning the signs and developing ways to defuse wounded souls before they explode, and then be willing, when it is our turn, to use what we have learned to relieve, heal and change the course before harm is done.
Let us look at Dzhokhar’s face once again with sorrow and compassion for the whole of society’s pain, both perpetrator and victims; read the story, search for answers, and make some changes in how we live our daily lives – not those of fear and self-protection – but changes of love and compassion that reach out and prevent the need for violent expression in others. Let us face and deal with the root of these horrible happenings and not turn away so quickly that we do not learn from them anything more than fear. Let’s fight terrorism on two fronts, inward and outward – through protection and prevention for all from any future instances, and by early recognition and compassionate intervention for those who would be the source.
