Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Murder on Broad Street, Middletown

A Wesleyan junior was murdered on the street where my daughter goes to school.
How often have we seen a single impulsive act born of anger bring lifetimes of suffering? There is a sickness in our culture that turns heart-sick men into monsters.My daughter's school walked by this place on the way to the Y minutes before this happened. My wife was called to pick her up at the Y when the return route was blocked by a police perimeter. She was told a bad crime had taken place, and she asked "Was something stolen?" When she was told no,she asked "Was someone killed?" How will this eight-year-old feel next week when she walks past this place? And when she is eighteen, I will worry for her safety at the hands of some young man too blind with passion to know what it is to truly love a woman.
Somehow we must teach our young men the horror and destruction that will follow should they lose faith in the goodness of life in the face of emotional pain from life's many disappointments. We need to build circuit breakers into their thought process so that they never choose to destroy what they can not possess. That is the difference between seeing a woman as an object of desire and truly caring for her.

No comments: