Eve Carson, 1985–2008Carolina loses a special person
I don't know how wide-spread this news is, but its a big deal here in North Carolina. Last week the student body president of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, was murdered. When I first heard the story was thinking, wow I wonder who would want to hurt someone like that. This young woman was pre-med and a humanitarian. Then I found out that the police are calling it a "random act of violence".
That really hit a chord with me. It scared me and made me realize how important it is to cherish the people around you. It further made me question what type of society we are living in when a person can randomly murder another person and leave the body lying in an intersection. I won't subject you all to all of the details of the crime, but if you are interested, I am including a link to a CNN news story.
So now, I am posing this question to you all: what steps do you think should be taken to help prevent such random and/or senseless acts of violence from continuing to happen in our communities? Do we need tighter gun control? Harsher sentencing for criminal offenders? Better education? Any combination of these things--or something totally different? Or is there nothing that can be done?
Post your thoughts by clicking the link below.
Also, please pray for the UNC community as well as all of the people who knew and loved this young woman, Eve Carson.
3 comments:
"But I feel that the greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion, because it is a war against the child - a direct killing of the innocent child - murder by the mother herself. And if we accept that a mother can kill even her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another? How do we persuade a woman not to have an abortion? As always, we must persuade her with love, and we remind ourselves that love means to be willing to give until it hurts. Jesus gave even his life to love us. So the mother who is thinking of abortion, should be helped to love - that is, to give until it hurts her plans, or her free time, to respect the life of her child. The father of that child, whoever he is, must also give until it hurts. By abortion, the mother does not learn to love, but kills even her own child to solve her problems. And by abortion, the father is told that he does not have to take any responsibility at all for the child he has brought into the world. That father is likely to put other women into the same trouble. So abortion just leads to more abortion. Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching the people to love, but to use any violence to get what they want. That is why the greatest destroyer of love and peace is abortion. " --- Mother Teresa
Committing crime is a reaction to societal structure. The current structure in American society is not one that promotes peace.
America is a capitalist society and advocates for "survival of the fittest." In this money-driven world, it is difficult for peace to exist. We have to remember that crime is a reaction to the system. The environment in America is one that is divided among class, race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, and religious and political affiliations, among other things. These groups are constantly competing against each other and this in turn creates a feeding ground for violence.
In order to decrease the amount of violence in American society we must create a societal structure that equalizes everyone instead of creating a hierarchy. America is supposed to be the ideal place for all people from all walks of life to live in peace and harmony when in fact our current structure does not allow for that to be created.
Although Eve Carson's murder is a horrible and tragic event, I think it is also important to shed light on the fact that many women and children of color are missing or murdered constantly. However, due to their color, economical situation or both, their stories are not highlight on the news or brought into the public. This is a major problem in our society. I remember when Natalee Holloway was missing in the Bahamas, that was pretty much the only thing I saw on the news over the weeks and even months following the event. I think as people of color, and even whites who are socially conscious, we need to let the media sources know that we want more stories to be covered about people of color and not just those that are the majority.
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