Tragedies aren’t tragic.
It’s when we do nothing that it becomes the tragedy.
In a perfect world, no one would be murdered or robbed, there would be no wars and the phrase “terrorist attack” wouldn’t be commonplace in our vocabulary.
Unfortunately, we don’t live in a perfect world. These things happen, and we have laws and a justice system set up in an attempt to stifle, if nothing else, the frequency of their occurrences.
In the coming days, Monday’s Navy Yard shooting will most likely become the newest chapter in the gun control debate.
It will happen and it will be heated — it’s inevitable.
Republicans will scream about how this never would’ve happened if more people had guns, and Democrats will complain about how the lack of stricter gun laws allowed the shooter to obtain the weapon in the first place.
This isn’t a column saying one way is right and the other is wrong. If you’re looking for that, go somewhere else. This is a column saying something needs to be done, even if it means the unpleasant task of politicizing death.
It’s cold, it’s unfair, it’s a terrible thing, but sometimes tragedies need to be politicized — sometimes we need people to be cold.
Tragedy, unfortunately, carries with it emotion, and emotion gets things done.
When terrible things happen, there needs to be a response. When tragedy strikes fear into the heart of Americans, Americans need to rise up and do something about it.
Airport security wouldn’t require everyone to take off their shoes if someone didn’t try to detonate a shoe bomb on a plane. Racial discrimination wouldn’t be illegal if at no point racial discrimination existed.
If there were no mass shootings or gun crimes, the entirety of the gun debate wouldn’t exist. But there are and it does.
I’m not saying President Barack Obama should be on site within the hour pushing anti-gun legislation or NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre needs to drag victims in front of a camera. There should be a respectful mourning period. People did die and there’s a fine line between being cold and being heartless.
But why should we blame a politician who stands up and says, “This tragic event is wrong, and we need to do something about it”?
In the wake of Newtown, Obama came under harsh scrutiny for polticizing the victims of the shooting in order to push his guns agenda. Former President George W. Bush recevied his fair share of flak over the years for pushing through the Patriot Act so soon after 9/11.
Politicians are judged by how they respond to adversity, to tragedy. America thrives on people who stand up in response to something they see as wrong and do something about it.
Don’t get angry and blame politicians on either side of the aisle for standing up in the next few weeks in response to the Navy Yard shooting, Newtown shooting or whatever it is they decide to say.
At least they’re doing something.
Mike Gegenheimer is a 21-year-old mass communication junior from Covington.