SONY A6300, ISO 100, 10mm, f/6.3, 1/5sec
Something was going on! While driving from the airport to my hotel numerous police cars sped by with lights flashing and sirens blaring. There were lots of them and they were in a hurry. I checked in to my room and turned on the TV. On a news channel they were saying there has been a school shooting in Parkland, FL. The school is on lockdown and no word on confirmed casualties but unconfirmed reports said there would be lots of them. I wasn’t familiar with the area and I googled “Parkland, FL” to see where it was. That’s when I learned the shooting occurred just a few miles from where I was staying in Coral Springs. Now all the police activity made sense.
With a few hours to wait before an evening appointment, I decided to do some reading at the hotel and keep the news on in the background. Details started to come out. Seventeen dead, more injured. They caught the gunman. The survivors were finally able to go home to meetup with anxious parents. We began to learn more about the victims and the killer. The immediate danger was over but the fear and sorrow was palpable. On my way to my appointment later that evening, I stopped to pick up some groceries. It was very quiet in the store; nobody was talking. Nobody knew what to say.
The next day my morning appointment was re-scheduled because there had been a “copycat” threat to an elementary school and again roads were closed and schools locked down. This time it turned out to be a false alarm but the fear in the community was real. It’ll be a long time before Parkland and surrounding communities will feel safe. It may never again feel as safe as it did before the shootings.
Now the questions. Almost immediately and way before anyone knew what really happened, the airwaves filled with “experts” opining about why it happened and what should be done. Some said it’s because we don’t have enough gun laws, while others said we need more guns in the schools in the form of armed teachers and police officers. Others said, it’s a mental health issue. There was even a (false) report that the shooter was associated with a white supremacist group. Everybody with an agenda was rushing to get airtime and the news media was more than willing to broadcast whatever was being said. The news reporters acted as if they would themselves die if they stopped talking even though there was nothing new to report!
On the second morning after the shooting I got up early and headed to Deerfield Beach to catch the sunrise. It was a pleasant morning and the sound of waves lapping on the beach was calming. My mind began to process all I had seen and heard the past two days. I still keep wondering how did this kid, and others like him, ever get to the state of mind in which he decided that he had no better option than to gun down a bunch of people? I’m no expert on the matter but the only explanation that makes sense to me is that this kid felt so completely disconnected from God and humanity that he believed the only way to get someone to notice him was to commit an act so heinous it could not be ignored.
This tragedy was avoidable. Since the shooting, it has come out that the shooter left many clues foretelling what he was planning to do. But he was ignored by most, including the authorities. He had a long history of run-ins with the authorities. He was expelled from Marjorie Stoneman High School the previous year and one report said bullets had been found in his backpack. On September 24, 2017, the FBI tipline received a report that the shooter had written a YouTube post stating “I’m going to be a professional school shooter.” Yet nothing was done.
So, what does a person have to say or do before they are heard? I believe there is a message here and it to do with paying attention and asking questions when something doesn’t seem right. Those 17 people didn’t need to die the other day and the kid who shot them didn’t need to be come a mass murderer for someone to finally take him seriously.
Xavier Ascanio Photography 