Reflections on Two Massacres

This weekend, we have all been horrified by two massacres on opposite sides of the Atlantic; one in Brussels and the other in Santa Barbara. Ironically, just days earlier, I had written a light-hearted spoof entitled, "Dragnet UC Santa Barbara", a parody on the spate of incidents over the past few weeks at UCSB. Now it's not so funny. It is serious-deadly serious.

In the case of Brussels, we have not yet learned the identity of the gunman since he is still at large. In Santa Barbara, we know the identity, and we know his motive. We also know the motive of the former. It was a hatred of Jews, pure and simple. As yet, we don't know if he was a Muslim immigrant or a European neo-Nazi/skinhead. Either way, I am willing to "go out on a ledge" and say it was an act of Jew hatred nonetheless.

There is one basic difference between these two cases. While many in the US will focus their anger on easy access to guns, to me, what this points out is that in our country, we have a mental illness problem that is central to most of these massacres we are experiencing. To our embarrassment, we must concede that we have a lot of people walking among us who should be in institutions. Unfortunately, it is very hard to place and keep people like these in mental hospitals. So we suffer the consequences.

In the case of the Brussels shooting, it is hate at work. Not  hatred directed at women who were not receptive to the shooter's attentions, but a hatred directed toward a people who have targets on their backs in Europe. How long has this site been reporting on the cases of anti-Semitism rampant in Europe, an anti-Semitism that is driving European Jews to leave their home countries in droves? Belgium has been no exception. Neo-Nazis and skinheads aside, Europeans-including the Belgians- have turned a blind eye to constant incidents of Jewish synagogues being defaced, swastikas painted on Jewish tombstones, and Jews dressed in Jewish garb being assaulted and insulted on the streets of European cities. The response has been tepid at best as European political leaders and media placate their restive Muslim immigrants by condemning Israel for perceived human rights abuses against Palestinians.

What happened in Brussels Saturday is a direct result. And the newspapers are reporting the Belgians are "in a state of shock". No, they are in a state of denial.

I don't know the solution to our problems here in the US. I can speak in generalities like doing something to keep guns away from those who are mentally ill, or making it easier to get people into mental institutions, but how do we change the rot in our culture?

In the case of Europe, I think the solutions may be more simplistic, but they will require strong political will to put them in place and send a strong message that anti-Semitic acts of violence will not be tolerated on the continent that experienced the Holocaust. The Europeans can start by voting out those politicians whose overly-tolerant policies have led to the cesspool that Europe finds itself in. Hopefully, this weeks elections in Europe will be a start.