Reading today's New York Times (7-24) I looked for an explanation for the tragedy which unfolded in Norway. I found some of my answer in the article which carried a quote by Kristian Anderson, a researcher at the London School of Economics.
Anderson is quoted as saying, "In some ways the homegrown nature of the terror made it harder for Norwegians to accept. With 9-11 in America people could ask. 'Who are they?' and could pour their rage out on someone else," he said. "But we can't disavow this person he's one of us. That's a sobering thought."
Our home grown tragedies were Kent State University, a high school in Columbine, a day care center in Oklahoma, a shopping center in Arizona, on a quiet street as a child walked home from school in New York City, and in communities across the country where shoot outs are commonplace every day.
When we permit unreasoned rhetoric to overtake our thinking, our language and our actions, there are not guns enough, nor walls high enough to secure us from terrible invasions of loss of life, property and our way of life. Perhaps that is the sobering fact we need to face.
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