Living in a Mass Casualty World
I vividly remember Columbine. My mom used to tell me about how she remembered exactly where she was and what she was doing when Kennedy was shot. The memory she had of that moment in time was so visceral, she could recall it in an instant. Everything down to the shock and terror she felt could be recalled in an instant. I have the same experience of 9/11. Aria and I were getting ready for just another day of senior year when the phone call came. We had no tv at our house and so it was in first period economics class that all three of us, Tizzy shared the class with us, watched the second tower crumble to the ground on a cloud of dust and debris. I had no connections in the city btu most of Aria’s family lived and still do live in New York. I remember spending the day on tenterhooks in anticipation that she might get a call about one of her loved ones. There was no learning done that day. The teachers didn’t even try and as and adult who is now the age that most of them were in 2001, I fully understand that they were probably in a state of shock and terror as well. There is no forgetting each minute of this day. Unfortunately, it was not the first time my generation had the experience of a staggering and shocking tragedy that changed the trajectory of our world.
High school for the BSW crew.
It was late in my freshman year of high school when Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold opened fire on their fellow students at Columbine High School and over the course of a little under an hour were able to massacre 12 teenagers, 1 teacher and, ultimately, themselves for a death toll of 15 and 24 wounded. The two high school seniors fired over 150 rounds of semi-automatic ammunition and discharged their shotguns 37 times. They constructed 99 bombs that included, pipe bombs, “crickets”, Molotov cocktails, and propane tanks converted into bombs. The brutality and savagery of this event was unprecedented in the United States, making it the most lethal school shooting in our country’s history at that point. There was no true definitive answer as to why these young men decided that they wanted to perpetrate this most brutal act of massacre, hoping to exceed the death toll of the Oklahoma City Bombing. There were theories that included bullying as the instigator, Klebold and Harris being “goth-type” dressers who were considered anti-social outcasts. Anti-depressants and violent video games were also blamed. Whatever the motives, theirs was an act of terrorism that ushered in a whole new way to live in the world.
Until that fateful day in April, I never once questioned my safety. Of course, I was not to get into any white vans or be bribed by strangers with candy, but it never occurred to me that someone in my own school could be a threat to my life. When I was in elementary school, we had earthquake drills. We would all climb under our desks and protect our heads from the possibility of falling debris. Children now have “active shooter” drills. Our babies crawl under their desks and protect their heads from the possibility of falling bullets. Our teachers turn off the lights and force silence whilst clutching baseball bats and hovering behind their classroom doors. I could never have guessed that school in Colorado would begin the massive snowball tearing down into our society. Since the tragedy of Columbine High School there have been over 231 school shootings in the US and spread between them, over 300 fatalities, a good portion of them, our children, and youths. After Columbine came Virginia Tech, 33 fatalities and 23 injured, Sandy Hook, 28 fatalities and 2 injured, and Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, 17 fatalities and 17 injuries. And they have, by no means, stopped. Our children and teachers and school staff are not safe, something that I could never have guessed.
To view this infographic in full visit: https://www.security.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Timeline-of-School-Shootings-Since-Columbine.jpg
Mass shootings are by no means reserved to the school system. I was in a production of “Scrooge in Love” when I as very, very, like 8 months, pregnant with Jasper. A la “A Christmas Carol”, Scrooge was taken into the past and shown moments of his life where he went wrong. During one such scene with young Scrooge, all of the members of the cast except the aforementioned hero and his lady love, Belle, were directed to be frozen in action. Our small, 99 seat theatre was full of patrons at that moment and the stage was full of immobile actors. As was usually the case, I let my mind wander to all manner of things. For the most part it was about the baby squiggling within me, or how hungry I was, or equally benign thoughts but on this particular day, it took me to a much darker place. As the strains of a love song filtered into my ears, I had the horrifying thought that someone could easily walk into this room and open fire. The possibility of escape in this little room packed with people with only few avenues of freedom would be virtually nil. It was a jolting thought. How had I never considered it before? We live in a world where that thought isn’t just a crazy fly away terror but an actual possibility. If we truly considered how close the touch of violence is to each of us in all facets of our daily lives, I’m sure none of us would ever leave our houses.
On Saturday, May 14th, 2022, Payton Gendron arrived at Tops Friendly Market in Buffalo, New York and shot 13 people outside and within the store, 10 died. Of those 13 shot, 11 were Black. Using an assault weapon and livestreaming his hate, he shot four outside and then continued his rampage inside the store, shooting 8. According to his internet “manifesto”, he identifies as a White supremacist, fascist, and anti-semite and had planned to continue his rampage after his carnage at the market. This 18-year-old took the lives of 11 people who were living their day as we all were on Saturday afternoon. He felt that somehow, he had the right to take it all away from these people. He was able to obtain a deadly tool and somehow his brain said that using this weapon to kill 11 people was justifiable and acceptable. How have we allowed this to happen? Why is it permissible that weapons with the capability to take the lives of multiple people are readily available to all manner of people. Why do we not have a capable mental health system that offers treatment, and monitors the well-being of those with mental illness indicators? Gendron had previously made a threat at his own high school and was subsequently taken in for mental health evaluation. Why was he able then to obtain a firearm? Why was he able to walk up to a grocery store and rain down bullets? We must do better! We must find a way to stop these senseless crimes. This is an abomination.
Nine of the 10 people killed in a shooting at a Buffalo supermarket.
Top, from left, Katherine Massey, Aaron Salter, Pearly Young, Ruth Whitfield and Celestine Chaney. Bottom, Heyward Patterson, Roberta Drury, Andre (Elliott) Mackneil and Margus Morrison.
I will not leave you on the note of this disgusting human but, instead, the humans who were victims of this tragedy. Killed on Saturday were Katherine Massey, 72, beloved Buffalo native, Aaron Salter, 55, Tops security guard and retired police officer, and Ruth Whitfield, 86, who had just visited his husband at his nursing home. Also gunned down were Heyward Patterson, 67, who had been loading groceries into his client’s car. Roberta Drury, 32, Geraldine Talley, 62, and Margus Morisson, 52. Andre MacKneil, 53, was killed on his son’s third birthday. He had been picking up a surprise birthday cake at Tops. Roberta Drury, 32 and Celestine Chaney, 65 had picked Saturday to shop and lost their lives. Injured in the shooting were Zaire Goodman, 20, Jennifer Warrington, 50, and Christopher Braden, 55. The final casualty was Pearly Young, 77, who ran a weekly food pantry in Central Park. These were people living their lives as they always had. They were grocery shopping for gods’ sake. And because they were in that doomed shopping market on Saturday, their lives were ripped from them. There have been too many shooting victims like this. Make a change. Time to make a change.
How can you help? The links below will take you to several organizations that are supporting the community in the wake of the tragedy.
https://www.buffalorising.com/2022/05/how-to-help-a-community-rocked-by-tragedy/
Citations
Wikipedia. (2022) Columbine High School Massacre, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbine_High_School_massacre
Security.org (2021) A Timeline of School Shootings Since Columbine, https://www.security.org/blog/a-timeline-of-school-shootings-since-columbine/
ABC Eyewitness News (2022) TIMELINE: Deadliest school shootings in recent history, https://abc13.com/school-shooting-mass-columbine-florida/3085363/
CNN (2022) Payton Gendron: What we know about Buffalo supermarket shooting suspect Payton Gendron, https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/15/us/payton-gendron-buffalo-shooting-suspect-what-we-know/index.html
NPR (2022) What we know about the victims of of the Buffalo shooting, https://www.npr.org/2022/05/15/1099031765/buffalo-shooting-victims
NBC News (2022) Who are the victims of the Buffalo supermarket shooting? https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/community-mourns-victims-buffalo-supermarket-shooting-rcna28935