A few weeks ago, a young white man, Dylann Roof, went into a black church in South Carolina and murdered nine people. We later found much evidence that Roof was a white supremacist, and he has stated that he was hoping to start a race war. In response, many people called on the state of South Carolina to remove the Confederate flag from its Capitol building. Under increasing public pressure, they permanently took the flag down a few days ago.
Since the shooting, this flag has been one of the hottest topics of debate in America. Many folks find it offensive because it represents an era in our history in which we enslaved African Americans and treated them as inferior citizens. Many Americans came to the defense of the flag, however, claiming that it doesn't represent slavery, but rather the southern way of life, and that we should preserve it as part of history.
I can see at least some merit in both arguments, and I'm not going to come down on one side or the other here. But this is the question that I pose to everyone, on all sides of the discussion:
If this is such an important issue, why did it take nine people to die to get us to do something about it?
Every time something like this happens, we look for something to blame, some societal factor that influenced an otherwise average person to do something terrible. We went through this same thing after the Columbine shooting in 1999. After two students went into the school and shot 13 people to death, we made every effort to blame anyone or anything besides the two shooters who actually committed the crime. "If only the other students hadn't bullied them." "If only they hadn't played those violent video games." "If only we had stricter gun laws."
It's unclear what influence these factors had on the two shooters, if any. A lot of it was just speculation. But it sure made for a sensational story and allowed us to avoid having to confront the real issue. I have never understood why it is so difficult for us to accept the fact that some people are just evil and to blame them for their actions. It may be because we like to think we have control, that there is something we can "do" to prevent future atrocities from happening.
Our news media knows this about us and takes full advantage every time tragedy strikes. We may briefly come together after it happens and express prayers and condolences for the victims, but shortly afterwards Americans were thirsty for answers. The news media was right there, ready to quench our thirst with stories on the Confederate flag. And in this age of social media, where virtually anyone can communicate with the rest of the world within seconds, it didn't take long for us to start fighting about it. Our own president was even talking about the flag within hours after the shooting. He's not stupid. He knew that this is a divisive issue and that talking about it would only add fuel to the fire. Is this what passes for leadership these days?
I have seen at least several news channels post on Facebook, asking people to give their opinions on the Confederate flag. I even saw one channel ask people to submit pictures of people who still support the flag. Again, the executives at these stations are not stupid. They've done enough of these posts by now to know that the conversation will not remain civil. They know they will get vitriolic responses from both sides and start arguments. In fact, I suspect that's why they keep doing it. Stories that divide us always get the most viewers, and in an industry that's about making money, that's all that matters.
Yes, it's disgusting. It's a sad assessment of the state of our society today. But we allow it to happen.
Evil is part of the human condition, and there is nothing we can do to eliminate it. It represents a force that is outside of our control, and I think that is why we have such a hard time holding people accountable for their actions. Whenever tragedy strikes, instead of looking for "reasons" why it happened, it's important for us to offer sympathy, be here for each other, and trust in God and the fact that he is in control and has a plan, even when it doesn't make sense to us.
This doesn't mean that we can't take measures to prevent crimes, such as passing laws, using punishment to deter criminals, and even being kinder to our fellow man. But if a person has evil in their heart, unless they make the decision to change, nothing we can do will stop them from at least trying to do evil things. Thousands of students are bullied and thousands of people are exposed to guns every day, but most of them don't go on killing sprees. I know that I have watched violent movies and video games and it never motivated me to kill anyone, nor did it motivate most others who have seen them. Those other "motivations" can only influence someone if they allow it to.
The same applies to the Confederate flag. Maybe taking it down is symbolic of the fact that we as a nation have moved beyond the racism of our earlier days and want to take a stand against racism where it still exists. I get that. But if that's the case, it shouldn't have taken a mass shooting to spur us into action. We should be a nation of proaction, not reaction.
In South Carolina, they are taking the flag down for the wrong reasons. It is ridiculous to think that taking down the Confederate flag will prevent future murders. It's even more ridiculous to think that had they not put it up before, this shooting never would have happened. Thousands of people saw that flag every day, but most of them never killed anyone. We are patting ourselves on the back for supposedly doing something good in response to this tragedy. But what will this accomplish? Have we actually done anything about violence in America? It seems to me that if anything, we have only riled people up even more.
Think about just how much power we have given this young man. South Carolina took down their Confederate flag as a direct result of this shooting. An entire state changed its laws because of the actions of one evil man, not to mention the arguments that are springing up all across the country. How can we allow him to have so much power? I'm sure Roof will get a severe punishment for what he did, but we are sending a very dangerous message to every potential criminal out there. They have seen what just happened and now know that they can use violence to influence us. They might go to jail, but they can still call the shots. How can we justify that?
We can lock Dylann Roof up and prevent him from ever killing anyone again, but that doesn't mean the damage he has caused our nation is complete. We have allowed the negative effects of this tragedy to go far beyond one church. We have allowed his actions to divide us, to pit us against each other at a time when we should be coming together to comfort each other and to take a stand against evil. Instead, we're yelling at each other over a smokescreen issue.
In that sense, we have allowed Dylann Roof to win.
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