Last week I had blinds installed on the window of my office door. The reason: in case of a shooter. The idea is that by pulling the blinds down the shooter will not know if people are in the office and will move on. The blinds could very well save my life and the lives of others in the event of a shooter in our school.
The odd part, though, is that the blinds were installed to cover the windows on the doors that were installed so as to prevent sexual misconduct that could take place in the case of a windowless door. How’s that for a run-on sentence?
So, now, we have installed something that is meant to protect us from an intruder but could very well be used to the advantage of an abusive personality. I suppose it’s simply a matter of picking your poison, abuse or death?
I don’t want this to be read as if I am against such things because I’m not. They’re necessary. They’re necessary because of the way in which we have decided to order our life. School shootings are now a regular occurrence. Sexual abuse and misconduct are a regular occurrence and have been for eons. According to statistics, 1 in 4 women have been victims of rape.
While our President claims that we have much to be scared of in regards to those outside of our borders my office door communicates otherwise. In fact, according to history the person I should be most afraid is the one I see in the mirror every morning. I am a white male in a position of authority. I’m sure this will prompt some readers to roll their eyes and scoff but that doesn’t make it untrue.
Just the other day it was revealed that 9 children were killed in a botched U.S. raid in Yemen. The goal of the raid was to capture or kill one of Al Qaeda’s most dangerous leaders. It did not go according to plan. In turn 25 Yemeni civilians were killed and as one Yemeni man put it, “If such slaughter happened in their country, there would be a lot of shouting about human rights. When our children are killed, they are quiet.” Such attacks have continually proven to be fodder for the recruitment and growth of terrorism. If you want to know why we are hated, which was the oft repeated question after 9/11, you need look no further for the answer.
While this attack was ordered by the Trump administration it really isn’t anything all that unique. Rather it simply continues what the Obama administration (and previous administrations) had been doing for the past 8 years. The only difference when compared with past presidents is that we now have one who is quite bold and audacious regarding how he perceives the humanity of others. He wears his destructiveness on his sleeve. He did say that we should also kill the families of terrorists and he did say that he grabs women by the you-know-what.
Coming full circle, are not such attitudes the reasons why I have a window in my office door and now blinds to cover that window? You might think that that’s bit a of a stretch but I don’t think it is. These things are all connected. Somewhere, somehow, some young man got the notion that shooting innocent people would be a fruitful endeavor like setting off a race war. Somewhere, somehow, some man got the notion that he could take advantage of a woman in a violent manner and get away with it. I could simply say it’s because of sin, that it’s because of our fallenness, but that would actually be incredibly irresponsible.
Rather, it’s a pathology.
One that makes us sicker and sicker.
A Foolish Way 