What Will Our Legacy Be?

Some weeks it appears as if the world has gone crazy. Rioting in the streets and looting innocent business owners is deplorable and should be the most troublesome event of the week. Sadly it was not. The very public, horrifying death of an American photo journalist certainly took top bill in a week full of incomprehensible actions. I am appalled at the actions of those who so cavalierly take from others. Take life, property and freedom of fear and believe that they are entitled to their actions. I would like to think that this is a problem that was born on foreign soil but, sadly, it is global and reaches even into our back yard.

Are we angry at someone? Why not just pull out a pocket knife and go at them? Never mind that we are at a child’s ballgame and never mind that the response is grossly out of proportion to the situation. Where has all of the common sense gone? In years past, people considered the circumstances and then reacted. Have we become so undulated with a give it to me now culture that we can’t even pause to consider the consequences of our actions?

Regardless of what television says, some things truly are not for public consumption. It is enough to know that an American journalist was beheaded, it goes beyond all bounds to make the man’s last seconds on this earth a spectacle, of horror for sure, but still a spectacle. He deserved more than a trailer on you tube or to trend on twitter. It is that very callousness that makes people believe that they are justified in looting and destroying the life and livelihood of innocent people in the name of justice. What wrong does this right? What point does it serve? This is not justice, this is an excuse for criminals to commit crimes and for thrill seekers to get their jolt of adrenaline. How did we sink so far?

Surely, surely, we are better than capitalizing on tragedy for profit and horror for commercialism. I know that we know better. We still know better but I fear that the day is coming soon that our children may not know better. Surely this will not be our legacy.