What can one say about Joseph Lynn, a 13-year old child, who attempted suicide Monday in a private school John Curtis Christian School, in River Ridge, a suburb of New Orleans?   (permission has been granted to reveal the child’s identity).

My heart pains for all involved in this particular incident and hope for a quick healing process for everyone.

We can blame the school for not having sufficient safety precautions, blame the parents, blame the surrounding environment and even blame the child for doing something so self-inflicting and harmful.

Possibly many played a direct or indirect role in the incident that should not have occurred.  But, it did and the most immediate concern is how do we prevent these senseless acts from taking place, whether they happen in a private school or public, whether the venue is Louisiana or Peoria, whether the acts are suicide or homicide or whether they be performed by an  adult or a by child?

No doubt, there are many causes for this unfortunate event and for so many other horrors of helplessness. 

Ironically, the child shooting reminded me of a speech by New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin in a church on Martin Luther King Day, pre-Katrina.  The church was miles away from River Ridge, not in a suburb, but in central city New Orleans.  Nagin asked then, why does this hate against one another occur?  He questioned why can’t we learn to take better care of ourselves and our loved-ones and our kids?  At that time, he was asking the question to those in the church about themselves and their own families.    The next day, he gave the same speech to the Chamber of Commerce.

Today, I am asking the same question to everyone.

Why do we use violence (whether physical or emotional) to hurt ourselves or to injure others--other than in obvious and true national security self-defense situations? 

Why are our homes broken, our kids torn, our schools unsafe and our futures so uncertain? 

There are no simple answers.  There are no quick solutions.  There is just a mystery that permeates beyond that private school in River Ridge Louisiana and that flows  through every household throughout the world, one, we just cannot explain.  We cannot describe the hate or the hurt that drives us to do what we do.  The factors are numerous and the solutions are virtually inconceivable to resolve.

If this incident and others will teach us one thing, it must start with the appreciation that the opposite of violence is peace.  Peace is so difficult to teach but we know it when we feel it deep inside us.  And we certainly know violence when it bubbles in our own blood and when it ultimately inflicts others.

Before we can stop the violence between nations, we must stop the violence within our own personal selves.  Then, we can help our families, our schools and our communities where we live.

We must reach inside and learn to care for our own beings and then aid those around us.  That small helping hand sometimes can make a major difference for others who are in need at a time--even if we are unaware of their own hurts.     As a family struggles in River Ridge Louisiana, let’s find peace in our hearts to help a stranger somewhere today.  There is a chance that person we touch will be stronger by our presence and will be aided by our outward intense desire to make their lives more pain-free.





 

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