Guest Opinion: Peg Luksik on the Tragedy in Connecticut and Changing the Question

By Peg Luksik
1/9/2013
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)

If we actually want to make the violence stop, we need to focus our attention on its cause.

In the weeks since the tragedy in Connecticut, the questions asked by the media and the political establishment have all focused on HOW the killings were done, instead of WHY they happened.
Again.

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HARRISBURG, PA. (Catholic Online) - There is a classroom exercise called the "Lifeboat". In it, there is a lifeboat with ten people in it. The students are given a bio of each of the people, and then told that only nine will fit in the boat. They must decide who must be tossed out of the boat so the remaining nine people will survive.

Over the years, students have struggled with the task of deciding who should live and who should die. In the exercise, the class discusses the decision of each student. No student is comfortable with the task, but do not know how to escape its horrible decision-making process.

But one student came into class and offered the possibility of using clothing to make a rope, and then letting each passenger swim behind the boat for one hour. There were never more than nine people in the boat, and no one had to die.

The class listened to this new solution, and suddenly they had a variety of options that would save all ten passengers. The professor asked why the new options had not been offered first, and the students replied that no one had asked them to save every life. They had been asked to choose a life to end, and they had focused on answering the question that had been asked.

The student with the new approach had changed the question. Instead of asking which life to end, that student had asked himself how to save every life. When the question changed, the answer did as well.

In the weeks since the tragedy in Connecticut, the questions asked by the media and the political establishment have all focused on HOW the killings were done, instead of WHY they happened.
Again.

Because the Connecticut incident is not the only mass murder to occur in the past twelve months - it is just the latest.

If we actually want to make the violence stop, we need to focus our attention on its cause. It won't be an easy task. It will require us to honestly examine all the factors in the lives of the killers. It will mean that we might have to re-evaluate our own beliefs and behaviors.

There is evidence that all of the killers came from homes that had been broken by divorce. So could divorce be more harmful to children than we as a society believed? And if so, do we need to re-examine our policies in that area?

There is evidence that a majority of the killers had a history of mental instability. Do we need to look at the changes made in the way that we deal with mental illness in our society and make some adaptations?

There is evidence that the killers showed no remorse over the deaths of their victims or the suffering of the victims' families. Do we need to explore the effects of the loss of respect for life and for morality in our society?

These questions don't have immediate answers. But they are real.

That makes them infinitely better than the pretend debate that is currently raging across America. The reality is that not all mass murders are committed with guns. Killers use whatever tools they deem most effective to achieve their grisly results.

Does anyone really believe that the families who had empty spaces around their Christmas trees this past year would have felt better if the emptiness had been caused by a bomb instead of a rifle?

Of course not.

The pain of the families who lost loved ones to violence this year is real. They need, and deserve, a real examination into the sources of that violence.

It's time that we changed the question, and began that examination.

-----
Dr. Peg Luksik is the Founder and Chairman of Founded on Truth

- - -

Pope Benedict XVI's Prayer Intentions for January 2013
General Intention: The Faith of Christians. That in this Year of Faith Christians may deepen their knowledge of the mystery of Christ and witness joyfully to the gift of faith in him.
Missionary Intention: Middle Eastern Christians. That the Christian communities of the Middle East, often discriminated against, may receive from the Holy Spirit the strength of fidelity and perseverance.

Keywords: Connecticut, Sandy Hook Elementary, Newtown, violence, culture, Peg Luksik

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1 - 5 of 5 Comments

Karl
4 months ago
Try seeking authentic justice rather than the false charity which
masquerades as justice and does untold damage. There you will
find a mother lode of causes of pent up, unaddressed, toxic yet
"fixable" rage.

Start with divorce and its real causes and effects.
starzec
4 months ago
I agree we should ask the question but be careful.

After 9-11, many of us wanted the answer to Why? and were told to shut up and be patriotic. The reason why 20 men hijacked airplanes and crashed them was that they hate our freedoms. So we said, let's give up our freedoms so they do not hate us (see Patriot Act). Those of us who were not blinded by this smoke and mirrors answer dug deeper and realized it had more to do with how we interfered in the middle east than our freedoms.

Likewise, we can point to broken homes and that these murderers seem to come from broken homes. So are we going to regulate the family? Ban divorce? Are we going to tell a mother that she must stay with the abusive, alcoholic husband? Truth is, children are more affected by the constant arguing and abuse in household than a divorce.

How do you ban divorce? Using what law? Using a Biblical basis? How will it apply to non Christians? How will it apply to Episcopalians who church was founded on the right to divorce?
-----
Do we need to explore why there is no remorse? Yes. Again, be ready for the answer? In their minds the ends may justify the means. Look at Randal Terry, he was perfectly willing to plant bombs and kill people for performing abortions. There is a disconnect there. There is ideology and demagoguery that simply cannot be explained.

But you are right. We do need to ask the important questions.
Bill Sr.
4 months ago
"Do we need to explore the effects of the loss of respect for life and for morality in our society?" Exactly! That is the national debate we should be vigorously involved with today.
But the media has no taste for it. In fact, the secular progressives who literally own the mainstream media, television, and Hollywood want no part of a national examination of our moral conscience. That could possibly shed light on their coveted anti-Christian agenda which the adoring liberal democrats' exposed at their national convention this past fall when they willingly desired to remove any mention of God from their platform. Our government run public educational system assisted by the media today have produced an effective majority of ill informed and morally deficient voting populous which now blankets our society hiding the light of truth from the eyes our people and chocking our reason and spiritual aptitude needed for a respect for life.
marcia yost
4 months ago
I think we need to see more of this kind of postive questions like this. I loved the article children need to see that there are many diffrent ways to solve the problems. They need to see that there is not just one route so that they can be more open minded.

kids can be very created if parents will just let kids be kids and guide them through different steps to find the answer in many differen directions

marcia
Mathew Thankachen O.Praem
4 months ago
Congrats Peg for reverting the question and thereby inviting an answer unanswered- the why of the things. The " why of the things" is always deal with the ultimate issue whether in science or society. Of course, " divorce is not the only cause" of " criminality" and " animality" in mankind. The whole culture , moral values and faith prevailing in the family, society and nation at large is responsible for the human behavior. one thing is evident- the teaching of the Church is tested and proved in the furnace of " experience, history and wisdom" of centuries before us, revelation of God, revealed in man. Divorced life is a great set back to the " expression of love", (God experience" ) envisaged in the sacrament of marriage and family life. It is precisely so the Catholic Church .from its very inception is against " Divorce". Multiple sex has already punished with "AIDS". It again vindicates the Laws of the Church is grounded upon " Divine Law" and " natural law", the violation of which would invite dire consequences. America is famous for the schools of psychology which teaches how important is " the love of both parents" for the balanced growth of the children. Liberty and individualism in its extreme, devoid of Divine will will annihilate all the civilization and human institutions.Again, the ultimate question is the "savior" (Christ/ Church) and He, the ultimate answer too, although the hierarchical Church always in its history had frailty, as it is composed of human being who are basically sinners, despite the divine animation.
Mathew Thankachen O.Praem.

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