Friday, January 14, 2011
pt 2 "I'm Traumatized" - The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan
I am relieved that my comment did not irritate anyone for that is not my goal in posting. I did realized upon re-reading that it was a reader comment and not Andrew Sullivan. But here is my second observation. The reader states that BECAUSE a close friend was brutally murdered therefore said reader will never again take any interest in politics or political actions (campaigning, voting, I presume). I thought about how I grew up in the aftermath of WWII knowing all the millions of deaths plus the Holocaust. Then Korea, then Vietnam, and the constant killing of 20 million in the Congo (the most war related deaths since WWII.) We are marginally aware of the suffering and death in the world, but we are not deeply affected (nor should we be in the sense that it would impair our functionality in society.) One death is a tragedy and thousands is a statistic or some such thing that Stalin said. Well, WHEN we suffer brutal loss in our own family, we must mourn and then heal, deal with it and move on.
Jackie Kennedy was sitting right next to her husband when his head was blown off. I am sure she went through her difficulties but she moved on. She had children and a life to live. Now it is a different discussion as to whether the MANNER in which Jackie moved on was wise, and I am not implying it was not. The point is that she didn't just sit in a corner and pout to spite God or The Force or the Fates because in a way that's what this sort of withdrawal from life and action represents. I remember around 1968 when that student at St. Johns Annapolis was shot, and Edward M., who lived on my floor, walked about, angry, smashing his fist in his palm, saying various things like "this is an outrage, this must not happen, this should not happen, something must be done." Now I said nothing but I realized that he was venting and what he said was really simply his outrage and frustration and not meaningful plans of action. 30 or so years later, the shooter made the mistake of bragging about it to his cell mate who then ratted him out and he went to trial for that murder. I dare say our nation was not at any pivotal point in 1968 either. Consider that fellow obsessed with Salinger's "Catcher in the Rye" who asked John Lennon for an autograph, then shot him, then sat on the curb reading his book waiting for the police. Yoko Ono suffers to this day, but she moved on.
