The real tragedy

There was a shooting in our apartment complex on Sunday. And by "in our complex" I mean in a unit that shares a wall with us.

Naturally, that means there's been news people around. I wasn't here when it happened, but I was back home this morning when they were fishing for follow up stuff. I brushed them off, but as I have been thinking about it, there are some things I wish I had said. Especially to the second guy, who had a camera man with him and a microphone and I'm sure would have been up for filming anyone who wanted.

(As a side note, you can see some of the news articles at various Louisville news sites, including WHAS 11 and WLKY. If you search enough you'll see articles from the day of, and some from later on. As another side note, this highlights how much the news speculates and is willing to put forth 'witness' speculation as fact, when in fact no one knew dirt.)

They asked some general questions, wanting to know if I knew my neighbor (which I do not). The first guy asked me how I felt, if I wasn't worried or upset that something like this would happen here, since "isn't this supposed to be a nice neighborhood?" The second guy asked me, "was the guy violent?"

The news around here seems to love reporting on violence. I think every shooting makes the news, no matter what. In the couple of articles I've seen on this one, they have been hitting the angle of "we're surprised this would happen here." But I think they've got the angle all wrong. It shouldn't be a surprise that it happened here. That shouldn't be what makes this tragic and notable. It should just be tragic that it happened at all.

And what really is tragic, is that the neighborhood matters to people. It shouldn't. My response is "well these things happen," which of course is true. But I don't think it's OK that I feel that way. We shouldn't just accept that these things happen. It shouldn't phase us more that it's in one neighborhood or another. Two people got shot last night, for whatever reason, and one of them is dead. Someone, somewhere, is crying over this.

Someone has lost a brother, or a son, or a husband, or a boyfriend, or a friend, or a coworker, or a cousin, or a nephew, or a grandson.

Someone else is worried about the health and survival and "what happens now" for a brother, or a son, or a husband, or a boyfriend, or a friend, or a coworker, or a cousin, or a nephew, or a grandson.

That should be tragic. That should always be tragic. That should always upset us. We shouldn't care because it's in this neighborhood and not another, because we shouldn't expect or accept this in any neighborhood. We shouldn't care whether or not the people were prone to violence, because we shouldn't accept violence as a solution to problems. The real tragedy is that the news cares more about where it happened, then about the fact that it happened at all.