Victims on both ends of the gun
Alexander Richards
Issue date: 4/8/09 Section: Opinions
While many Colby students were excitedly packing their bags in anticipation of spring break, students in Winnenden, Germany were facing a much harsher reality. On March 11, 2009, 17-year-old Tim Kretschmer opened fire at Albertville-Realschule Winnenden School, where he was once a student. By the time Kretschmer was found dead by police, 15 other people had been killed.
The Winnenden shooting stands as the most recent example of a persistent pattern of international tragedies-standing alongside the Columbine, Virginia Tech, and Northern Illinois massacres. While we tend to hear the most about shootings in the United States, countries like Germany suffer just as frequently from such heart-wrenching events.
The fact that our "modern" and "civilized" western societies cannot seem to go more than a few months without a young, troubled person undertaking such drastic and lethal actions stands as a mark of shame on our supposedly progressive culture. I say this because the underlying factors in many, if not all, of these incidents is that the perpetrators were visibly troubled and psychologically ill persons.
In our society, psychological illness-be it depression, anxiety disorders, or what have you-are still viewed more often as "character flaws" or things that people should just "get over." I will personally admit that I used to be one of those people who believed psychological disorders to be little more than over-diagnosed moodiness up until a few years ago.
But a short while back, I began to realize the gravity of these conditions. In my personal life, people quite close to me were diagnosed with mental illnesses. Even then, I still was not sure what to think-I was hundreds of miles away from these people, wrapped up in the Colby bubble, and could not understand the context. Then, through my experiences as a Head Resident, I was exposed more intimately to people with psychological conditions as well as to people who had lost family and friends either to suicide or forced in-patient care. I finally realized just how scary and real these illnesses were.
The Winnenden shooting stands as the most recent example of a persistent pattern of international tragedies-standing alongside the Columbine, Virginia Tech, and Northern Illinois massacres. While we tend to hear the most about shootings in the United States, countries like Germany suffer just as frequently from such heart-wrenching events.
The fact that our "modern" and "civilized" western societies cannot seem to go more than a few months without a young, troubled person undertaking such drastic and lethal actions stands as a mark of shame on our supposedly progressive culture. I say this because the underlying factors in many, if not all, of these incidents is that the perpetrators were visibly troubled and psychologically ill persons.
In our society, psychological illness-be it depression, anxiety disorders, or what have you-are still viewed more often as "character flaws" or things that people should just "get over." I will personally admit that I used to be one of those people who believed psychological disorders to be little more than over-diagnosed moodiness up until a few years ago.
But a short while back, I began to realize the gravity of these conditions. In my personal life, people quite close to me were diagnosed with mental illnesses. Even then, I still was not sure what to think-I was hundreds of miles away from these people, wrapped up in the Colby bubble, and could not understand the context. Then, through my experiences as a Head Resident, I was exposed more intimately to people with psychological conditions as well as to people who had lost family and friends either to suicide or forced in-patient care. I finally realized just how scary and real these illnesses were.
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