Making Tracks

By Kat Bryant

I wrote this on my Facebook page in 2012, right after the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Seems even more relevant today, with such horrors happening on a regular basis. I’m still shaking my head in sadness and disbelief — and turning strangers into friends as often as I can.

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My heart hurts — not just for the lives lost this week and the families who are grieving for them, but also for my country.

The horror that occurred in Connecticut cannot be quick-fixed by gun control or mental health regulations; it goes far deeper than that. What we saw this week is a sad symptom of the degeneration of American society. We have become a nation plagued by paranoid strangers who encourage extreme public stupidity.

At some point in the past few decades, people began insulating themselves from those around them. Neighbors quit getting to know one another. People started averting their eyes instead of smiling and saying hi when they passed on the sidewalk. Parents shielded their children from anyone and anything unknown.

Why? Fear. “The guy next door rides a Harley, so who knows what kind of crowd he hangs with.” “That man on the street might mistake a friendly smile for a come-on, and who knows what could happen.” “I can’t risk anyone hurting my child, so no strangers are coming near.” I’ve heard these and more. I’ve been guilty of a few such thoughts myself.

Add to that the sensationalist crap that has sprung up in place of actual news on TV, plus the widespread idolatry of idiocy that motivates reality television, and that mass paranoia has become a self-fulfilling prophecy. More and more people are becoming that which we fear the most. And because so many of us have tuned everyone else out in our little cocoons, we don’t notice until it’s too late.

Just to clarify: I’m not saying any of this is the media’s fault. What I’m saying is that this society has devolved into a beast that fears anything unfamiliar and rewards inconceivably stupid choices with celebrity status. The media, as always, are simply a reflection of society. If nobody paid attention, there’d be no money in it.

On the bright side, there are still plenty of folks who know their neighbors’ names and have the occasional beer with them; who chat with strangers in line at the store without worrying about them pulling a knife in the parking lot; who take their kids to public playgrounds and actually enjoy meeting new people there; and who find “Jersey Shore” repulsive enough not to watch it. Even more wonderful, as we saw this week, there are still plenty of folks who — when faced with someone making an inconceivably stupid choice — will choose to do the right thing to protect innocent lives.

Our choices make us who we are — as individuals, as families, and as a nation. So, as I reflect on this week’s tragedy, I resolve not to live in fear; to keep my faith in my country and my fellow human beings; and to unabashedly reach out and say hello to someone new on a regular basis.

I hope I’m not alone.

Kat Bryant is lifestyle editor of The Daily World and editor of Washington Coast Magazine. She didn’t change a word of this piece from 2012. Reach her at kbryant@thedailyworld.com or on Facebook at Kat Bryant-DailyWorld.