Crimes of Humanity

     Crimes of humanity- a topic so pervasive to our country it has become the norm. To gain an understanding of the brutality humans expel towards others, you don’t have to look very far. I’m not crying out for the fact these crimes against the innocent, accidental or not, occured, but rather the ways fate may chose to finish us off. This past July month in Connecticut- a gentle, friendly state rooted deeply in antiguity, a series of deaths have shocked us. Although it’s the initial shock of these deaths that ignite a vicious overwhelming sadness in most of us, its shocking to me the speed in which we are able to move on. However, that’s just it- with so much unfairness and wrongness in our world, that’s all we can do as humans to survive- move on and be cautious of the fateful path our fellow humans were dreadfully bound for.

     This month alone we’ve lost a mother and three children to a Bridgeport pond. The mother drove to a park for a picnic, stepped out of her minivan to talk to someone, and the van started rolling. The mother was able to get back inside, but she couldn’t stop the van, and then she couldn’t save herself and the children, two of whom were her own.

     That weekend, a woman was killed and her husband and two of their friends injured when a runaway motor boat sliced trhough their small sailboat on the lower Connecticut River. The motorboat owner has been charged with reckless boating while under the influence.

     Two days later, we had another drowning, this one a promising young man who just weeks before had distinguished himself by earning five degrees from the University of Connecticut. Though he’d already started his work career in Stamford, he lived at home to help care for his ill mother. Even if you never met the guy, you felt the loss.

     Two days after that, two young men- one a Conard High football player- were shot execution style in the Hartford streets. Earlier, authorities feared the killings were gang related, but police eventually said it was more like a robbery gone bad.

     We had a brief lull, and then our uneasy quiet was exploded by the events at Chesire, in an unbelievable crescendo of animal violence by two men whose priors were leading them nowhere good.

     It’s a month like this that even the blue skies, warm weather, and bright sun can’t hide the feelings of sadness we feel towards the losses of our human race. We can get angry, get sad, get even- we own the right to cry away the horridity that our world creates, but right now these tears may be our only way of dealing with the issue and strengthening ourselves in preparation for the next one.

     I can’t help but wonder what the shooter of the Conard football player must have been thinking when shooting his victim? Or the thoughts pacing through the heads of the Cheshire killers. These thoughts and motives of these unspeakable human beings are almost as dreadful as the crimes themselves…