Hear No Evil, See No Evil

There has been a lot of news about mass murders. As soon as you read about a school killing, there are “copycats” popping up elsewhere.

Maybe it’s not such a good idea to print this stuff. Other people, who are angry with the world, who feel like outcasts, or who are just plain evil, read this stuff and get ideas. All you need to do is plant a seed, then give it something to feed on and watch it grow.

Now that the sad story about the Amish girls getting killed has been circulated throughout the world, do you think some sick person is going to read this and think, “Oh, great idea! Lemme try that!” Then there is more killing. Is that a little bit “overkill” on the part of the news?

The purpose of printing news like that is to get people to buy the paper. It sells. I often hear that stories get printed because they are something that don’t happen every day. People get into car crashes everyday. Big deal. An airplane crashes. Oh, big news! This doesn’t happen every day, let's print that.

You read a story about a kid who has been picked on in school. He brings in a "weapon of mass destruction" and starts shooting at his enemies, fatally wounding them. Sometimes innocent people end up dying because they were in the line of fire or in the wrong place at the wrong time. All of a sudden, other kids in similar situations think that this kind of payback is a great idea. They become obsessed with it. Now there’s more news on mass shootings at an educational institution. And on and on.

Where does it end? It keeps compounding. Is this a sign of the end of the world?

Maybe journalists need to start printing more pleasant things that go on around the world. This way, it doesn’t seem like such an evil place after all. Where there’s a silver lining, there’s hope.

Do I have a point here? Will anyone listen? Will anyone care?

On the other hand, I concede, information like these does help prepare others. They look for the signs and help avert a potential disaster, such as the scheme that was plotted in Green Bay, WI.