On the surface, contemporary America seems very distant from the world of Greek tragedy or the Toltec capital of Tula in 950 A.D. But our societies have something in common. We all practice child sacrifice.
The latest young victims of the ritual slaughter our culture permits are the 19 children shot to death inside their school in Uvalde, Tex., on Tuesday.
The massacre brings the total number of children killed in school shootings since the 1999 Columbine attack to 185. That figure doesn’t account for all the other settings in which children have been the victims of mass gun violence. And it doesn’t include the 311,000 children who were injured in school shootings, witnessed their classmates and teachers being shot, or sought shelter in barricaded classrooms, bathrooms and closets.
Given the lack of action after these spasms of butchery, there is only one possible conclusion: We are willing to tolerate the murder of children. We accept events that will gravely wound the bodies and psyches of many others.
Brian Broome: Why nothing will change after Uvalde
But in exchange for what? For what Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) has called “the fundamental, God-given right each and every one of us has to defend our lives, to defend our homes, to defend our children, to defend our family”? Must we allow the possibility that our children will be destroyed in order that they might, hypothetically, be saved?
At least in other stories and societies, the people who murdered children and the people who sanctioned those murders believed they were giving their children to the gods in return for something vital.
Excavations near Knossos have uncovered the remains of a sacrificed teenager, and historians of the period believe that Minoans may have practiced human sacrifice in response to natural catastrophes. Archaeologists believe that Toltec and Aztec children were sacrificed to the rain god Tlaloc to ensure the success of the harvest.
As for our contemporary bargain, the Greek tragedian Euripides came closest to capturing its ugliness. In his play “Iphigenia at Aulis,” the Greek forces assembled to return Helen from Troy find themselves becalmed by a lack of wind. A seer tells Agamemnon, the Greek war leader, that the only way to get the troops on their way is to sacrifice his daughter Iphigenia.
The Greeks lived in ancient times, but we live in the modern times. We value and must value every life, even animals.
The recent killings of 19 Children and two teachers at Uvalde Elementary School is so outrageous, so heartbreaking. All killings and murders are outrageous, but the killings of our little innocent children are the most heinous crime.
We need strict gun control laws. Present laws with respect to gun possession are an abuse of Second Amendment. We cannot allow guns, especially assault weapons, in the hands of mad men and psychopaths.
Zaki Sabih
In response to the article posted and comments by Zaki Sabih Saheb, just the comments of Sir Bertrand Russell are enough to prove who the Americans are even in today’s modern age:
“Violence is not new to America. White men of European stock seized the lands of indigenous Indians with a ferocity which endured until our own times. The institution of slavery shaped the character of the nation and leaves its mark everywhere. Countless “local” wars were mounted throughout the twentieth century to protect commercial interests abroad. Finally, the United States emerged at Hiroshima as the arbiter of world affairs and self-appointed policeman of the globe.”— Bertrand Russell,
(Bertrand Russell’s America: Volume II 1945–1970, Part II, The Entire American People Are On Trial, Ramparts magazine (March 1970), p. 474)