Ignoring the Entire Human Experience
How many times have you said, “In a perfect world, we shouldn’t have to…” and followed it with: Worry about a mass shooting or think my neighbor could be a pedophile. People say, “In a perfect world we could go for a run after dark.” Or, “In a perfect world, our kids wouldn’t have to do a lockdown drill for an active shooter.”
Just a quick side note here. Most of us reading this didn’t grow up having lockdown drills. This is a relatively new thing.
A Luxury We Didn't Have
I grew up in a community where there was a school shooting and people died. Did the state or school district come up with a plan for that? No. We were all sitting ducks, teachers and students alike.
That’s part of my realization about how my safety is my own responsibility, I knew no one was going to get to me in time. I’m all I have.
So the next time you hear a parent complaining that their children have to participate in a drill that protects them from an active shooter, remind them that we didn’t have that luxury. Ask them would they rather their kids be unprepared or are they appreciative that the school is proactive in protecting their children.
Good or Bad, We Are Human
This is a perfect example of how we as humans deny our own nature and our history. Humans are violent. Crime comes easy to people. People want to do explicit things to children. That’s out there. It’s in our communities.
We can’t just gloss over wars, crime, slavery, and oppressive governments and pick out only what we think the world should look like. We can’t have revisionist history. We can’t ignore the entirety of the human experience. By all means, we can learn from this to make the world a better place, but we can’t deny that humans willfully hurt other humans.
A perfect world does not exist today. God made us a perfect world once and Adam and Eve messed it up. Humans did what humans will do. And it’s been downhill ever since. Don’t forget Cain and Able, either.
Humans have been this way from the beginning. Just because we have the internet, a space station, and advanced medicine doesn’t mean we’re not human and that a man won’t kill his brother.
Don’t mistake progress for perfection.
Living That Bubble Life
We live in an advanced society. And some people choose to live their lives in a bubble of what they think society is like. They think that everyone is okay and just as good as they are. This is called the false consensus theory and it will get people hurt.
These bubble people are appalled and offended when the news tells them that a human did something that humans have been doing since the beginning of time! The full human experience makes them uncomfortable.
You can choose to live in a world where nothing bad should ever happen and you are outraged when something tragic occurs. Or, you can live in reality and prepare to defend yourself against it.
It really is your choice. But when you make that choice, you also make it for your children because you raise them.
Do you want your kids to be capable or offended?
Do you want your kids to adapt and overcome in the world, or judge and demand that everyone change to meet their expectations?
Which of those kids do you think are going to succeed in life?
It seems that people have forgotten that evil exists and that the world is at peace at all times. That has never been true in human existence. Ever.
Evil vs. Legislation
Good-hearted people try to stamp out evil by passing laws to prevent whatever it was from happening again. I admire their effort but we are fighting evil the wrong way. Evil people don’t care about our laws.
We can’t legislate away evil. Because evil existed before legislation.
I never want to read the news of another active shooter or see that a teacher was arrested on child porn charges. Really, I don’t. Don’t mistake my hard look at reality for acceptance.
We can make a difference. We can influence our family and communities for good. We can prepare to defend those that we love against what we know humans can do. Just because it’s reality doesn’t mean that we have to accept it and wait to be victimized. We can take control of our world view, our mindset, and our family’s preparedness.
Overcome Evil With Good
When we acknowledge that evil exists and there is no perfect world then we can defend ourselves and our families from evil. We treat others with love and respect and do our best to help them. We do this because we are all humans and we are all in this together.
I’ll leave you with this from the book of Romans:
Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Romans 12:21
