#devastating events

As I was listening to conversations and reading a few Facebook posts, I didn't know what to think about the ways the world seems to be operating under. I was starting to assume that humanity was failing and that we are doomed. Maybe under this condition, it would make sense that the world would end on December 21, 2012. However, I feel that once I started reading some blogs through Facebook relating to the devastating situations that occurred, maybe humanity is not doomed and we will survive past December 21.

I realize that the school shooting in Connecticut was devastating and it is important to show support for the victims' families. Even for the other incidents that happened recently, especially a personal one I witnessed over Thanksgiving Break, it is important to show support for the families/friends who lost loved ones. However, it is also important to focus on ways to prevent this from happening again in the future, at least to some extent. People seem to put the blame on certain circumstances like guns. I do not like guns personally and according to social psychology, guns can prime aggressive thoughts. But on the other hand, if they were made illegal, there is an argument that people could still have them illegally, just like some drugs are still being sold and consumed secretly. There are some people who argue that maybe the violence in video games/movies might lead to violence and there is some correlation but does not exactly mean an exact cause. 

Some people even discriminate a certain group of people for strange or horrible events that happen. There is a lot of talk about how people who have mental illnesses should not own guns. They are inferring a stereotype that isn't true because actually, a lot of people with mental illnesses are not violent. Some people blame certain events on other groups of people they do not like. For awhile, there was racial tension and a lot of things would get blamed on African Americans or people of other ethnic backgrounds. Even before that, there was tension against women. Now the shift seems to be on the LGBT community. I know someone who claims that God caused Hurricane Sandy to hit New York because of their endorsement of gay marriage. I think all of this is just ridiculous. Just because someone is different from you does not mean that they are evil and are responsible for a horrible incident.