Irrational does not mean illogical

Yet another day goes by with reasons and excuses for Robert’s shootings of the young Amish schoolgirls. No matter what caused him to do this, there is absolutely no justifiable reason or excuse to make this in any way acceptable. But we need to look at it logically even though Roberts himself may not have been thinking rationally.

One theory touted by the media is that the death of Robert’s premature child changed him which psychologically contributed to his attack. The failure of the logic here is that Robert’s should have been more empathetic to others who have lost children, and not sent him into a murderous rage (and more specifically to kill only young girls). Whether or not the death of his daughter made him mad at God, or anyone else for that matter, it is illogical for this unfortunate event to lead to murder.

The second theory, based on the information released from Robert’s suicide note, is that he had molested minor children in the past and was having dreams of doing so again. Again this is not the catalyst to the murders he committed, but at this point it is conceivable that the guilt may have turned suicidal. Had it been simply that he was guilt ridden; he could have chosen suicide without the need for murder, but it did turn to murder, and apparently almost repeat pedophilia.

The fact that Roberts went to the school was a testimony to how he succumbed to the pressure of his depravity; and when he couldn’t fulfill his lusts (either by interruption or inability), in either aggravation and frustration (or both) he turned the gun on his intended victims. Finally he felt his only option was to take his own life, knowing that after taking such offensive actions as murder and pedophilia (admitted in a suicide note and attempted by the paraphernalia he carried with him) he could never face his family or community again.

What I’m saying is that the death of Robert’s premature daughter more than likely had absolutely nothing to do with his actions at the school, but the fact that he was a pedophile did. Roberts may try to justify his actions in his own mind by bringing up his grief, but it was his lack of willpower and/or self control led him to the school for what he wanted, and this is indicative of the current societal values which elevate self over others.

This is also a good example of how even the man or woman next door may be suffering with temptations like this, and the outcome shows how unable they feel to seek help. So why is it they feel unable to seek the help they need? Is it because of the judgmental attitudes of our society (both worldly and religious)? Is it because they really don’t want help, or maybe they think they don’t need it? Is it that they feel to guilty or self conscious about admitting they have a problem? (These are rhetorical questions for reflective purposes).

I don’t really know, and would it really make a difference even if we did? What we do know is that we have to live with the reality that we will deal with people like this, and that no where is truly safe. So what do we do? I gave an outline in my last post on how we need to raise our children with appropriate morals, but that is not even going to be enough especially when these offenders don’t see even death as a big enough deterrent to stop them from committing their crimes. Maybe if they understood that death will not get them out of paying for their crimes, it would change the way they act. But this is what happens when you live in a society that criticizes belief in God and moral behaviour; you feel like you will get away with it if you kill yourself.

So maybe the world views of “self gratification, look after #1, if it feels good do it, and it’s my life to do what I want” are wrong after all, and society need to take a good look at how destructive this view is before it is to late.

The real reason for this heinous crime will never be known, but we need to look at this as more than just a sad story of something that happened to someone else because this could happen to you, me or anyone just as easily. We all need to look at the way we raise our children, and we need to look at the values our children are adopting from a society that doesn’t care about them.


Bob