Uncouth PerspectivesNot on the rug, man.

I’m reading this article in my school’s newspaper (Orange Coast College’s Coast Report) on safety and lighting concerns. The article tells that the school has received a lot of complaints about the lighting and, now, the campus is deciding to do something about it. They have a brilliant plan. They are going to conduct a study. Everyone look out!

My assumption about this sudden concern for the lighting (and safety) is the recent re-hashing of school killings and shootings (at least, one’s that we hear about). So, some kids get shot in San Diego and the lights get turned up at my school. Now we are using our heads! While we are at it, maybe we can even fill in some pot holes! The whole school might even be safe!

Okay, let’s get down to the point. The school has been doing remodeling and they neglected to re-do the night time lighting as part of the plan, not including, of course, the regular maintenance they have not been doing. Now everyone is in an uproar because “school’s aren’t safe.” People getting shot/killed/hurt/robbed/etc at school is not the problem. It is a symptom.

It’s not the school that is not safe, it’s the people that are not safe. The killings are a symptom of the lack of self worth that our society breeds. We do not allow people to love themselves, we abuse each other (whether physical, verbal, emotional, monetary, etc), there are very few healthy outlets and people to turn to (Don’t cry religion at me, they’ll just tell you that you are the problem and you need to find an external source to help you out)… and then we wonder why a 15 year old kid will shoot people. Because we bred him to do it. We allowed him to get picked on in school. We allowed him to be misparented and abused. We allowed him to not have healthy outlets for his aggression. And we allowed him to externalize his blame.

Of course, it was the music! No, it was the movies! No, it was the books! No, it was the media! No, it was this damn philosophy stuff!

…No, it was people.

The situation needs to be called it’s real name–a symptom. Not a problem. The music is not the problem. Lighting is not the problem. The systems that allows for an externalized system of self worth and accountability… one that says the person is important, BUT DO NOT LOVE YOURSELF. One that says you are born an evil person and there is nothing -you- can do about it, but if you go to someone else you can be freed.

It’s time we stop and live in the real world and focus on the real problems. And let’s not jump and react only when there are problems. Use reason and have the problems solved by not letting them become problems.

Fixing the broken lights would help, too.