This juxtaposition between reactions to the death of a CEO and the death of Wisconsin school kids – tragedies that deserve, at the very least, equal outrage — shows us an uncomfortable truth.
School shooting in Wisconsin kills two, shooter also found dead
A teacher and student are among the fatalities after a school shooting at Abundant Life Christian School in Madison, Wisconsin.
In a normal, civilized society, every shooting death would matter. Every life taken would shock the conscience.
But that’s not the case in America. In our country, what seems to matter is who’s getting shot.
Our attention, for the moment, is on a school shooting in Madison, Wisconsin. Police say a 15-year-old student opened fire at a private Christian school, leaving three dead, including the suspect, and six others injured.
It’s abhorrent, of course. It was also abhorrent when UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was ambushed and shot to death on Dec. 4 in New York City.
A school shooting, a CEO’s death and who actually matters
It’s not controversial – or at least it shouldn’t be – to say that nobody should be shot and killed in America.
Nobody should have to fear gun violence, whether it’s in a classroom or on a city street or in a church or movie theater or shopping mall.
But consider the reaction that followed Thompson’s tragic death.
The news coverage was intense and pervasive and continues to be. The shock and fear in corporate circles was palpable, and swift steps were taken by corporations to protect their executives.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul swiftly convened a meeting with nearly 200 corporate representatives to, according to Politico, “discuss sharing security resources.”
NY response to UnitedHealthcare CEO’s death has been massive
Kathy Wylde, head of the Partnership for New York City, said of Hochul: “She understood how serious the impact of both the killing and the hateful reaction to it is, and she wants to make sure that the state resources, specifically the domestic counterterrorism resources, are focused on being supportive, sharing information.”
That’s all good. All of those things absolutely should be done, and executives should be made to feel safe and confident that the country is doing all it can to protect them.
But that confidence and sense of safety should also apply to school children and their parents. It doesn’t. Not even close.
Madison school shooting will soon be forgotten like the others
Call me cynical, but I don’t think we’re going to see quite the same response to the horrific shooting at Abundant Life Christian School. And I think that in large part because, according to data being tracked by CNN, Monday’s attack was the 83rd school shooting this year in the United States. (The data includes all incidents of gun violence that occurred on school property from kindergartens through colleges or universities in which one person was shot, not including the shooter.)
Every parent’s worst nightmare has happened at least 83 times this year, and not only have I not heard calls for mass meetings of education officials or the deployment of “domestic counterterrorism resources,” I can’t even name where five of those shootings happened. Our ears are dulled to the drumbeat.
In Wisconsin, the governor has ordered flags flown at half-staff until Sunday. That’s nice. That’s good. But while the families of those killed and wounded and every single person who was present during the shooting will be forever changed, I don’t think the news coverage or the national concern over this school shooting will last much beyond Sunday.
It’s just another school shooting in 2024, after all – No. 83.
School shootings have become part of our normal lives
President Joe Biden released a statement about the Madison tragedy: “From Newtown to Uvalde, Parkland to Madison, to so many other shootings that don’t receive attention – it is unacceptable that we are unable to protect our children from this scourge of gun violence. We cannot continue to accept it as normal.”
In a country that hits 80-plus school shootings a year without doing a blessed thing to toughen gun laws, increase access to mental health care or ban unnecessary high-powered weaponry, it’s safe to say gun violence has been normalized.
Although it clearly depends on who’s getting shot.
Nobody seems to care about shooting deaths in Chicago
I’ve worked for two decades in Chicago, where hundreds die each year in shootings, most of them in the city’s poorer neighborhoods. Nothing ever gets done about it.
The victims aren’t names, just numbers.
I’ve long said that if similar shootings started happening in the city’s tony northern suburbs, the problem would be eradicated so fast it’d make heads spin.
But as long as it sticks to neighborhoods the powerful avoid, so be it.
It shouldn’t matter who gets shot. We should care equally about them all.
This is who we are as a country.
This juxtaposition between reactions to the death of a CEO and the death of Wisconsin school kids – tragedies that deserve, at the very least, equal outrage – shows us an uncomfortable truth.
Until people stop dodging that truth and recognize the scope of the problem, the bodies of those deemed expendable will keep piling up.
Follow USA TODAY columnist Rex Huppke on Bluesky at @rexhuppke.bsky.social and on Facebook at facebook.com/RexIsAJerk
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Publish date : 2024-12-17 19:05:00
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