Hierarchy of Tragedy?

12 are shot dead, 58 are wounded by a lone gunman in an Aurora, Colorado movie theater on July 20, 2012.  It is front page, breaking news:  "A nation mourns the gun violence of yet another mass killing."  Vigils are held.  Debate over gun control continues.  President Obama orders the nation's flags at half-mast.

During their Sunday worship on August 5, 2012, 6 Sikh men and women in Oak Creek, Wisconsin are murdered by a “skinhead” who also wounds 3 others including 2 policemen who heroically confront the gunman and treat the wounded.  The nation is shocked.  Vigils are held.  The President shares his and the nation’s grief.  The Attorney General of the United States is assigned to represent the President at the Memorial Service. 

14 men, women and children die and 11 are seriously injured in an overcrowded pick-up truck accident, 90 miles outside of San Antonio, Texas on July 22, 2012.  It is suspected they are undocumented workers in the United States illegally.  The reports are in the back pages of the news.  There are no national vigils or debates.  The President orders no flags flown half-mast.

Why not?  Is there a hierarchy of tragedy?

There were 11,493 gun murders in the United States in 2009. (Census)

There were 35,900 auto accident deaths in the United States in 2009. (Census)

There are tragic losses to be sure in both situations, gun murder or car accident, yet why the attention, the nationwide mourning, over mass shootings by a lone gunman?  How is it that auto accident deaths, three times the number of gun related deaths, are not the occasion for national mourning?

Half of all gun deaths in the U.S. are suicides (FBI).  Suicides are barely mentioned beyond the local newspaper. 

Every day on average in the United States 10 people unintentionally drown (over 3,600 each year).  Of those who drown, 20% are people under the age of 14.  Drowning is the fifth leading cause of unintentional death in the U.S., yet unless we are directly affected, we rarely even hear about it when someone drowns (CDC).

Are some lives more worthwhile than others, more deserving of our attention, our mourning?  Is the capricious vulnerability of mass shooting victims our worst nightmare?  Is it because the Aurora, Colorado victims...or the Tucson, Arizona victims (6 dead, 13 injured including Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, 01/08/11)...or the Columbine, Colorado High School victims (13 dead, 21 injured, 04/20/99)...these victims are like "us," part of the dominant culture, middle class folk?  Is it because the victims are folks we can relate to, folks we would see at the movies?

Not "illegals" crammed into a truck.  No national mourning for them.

Is there a special grief for the innocent, as if the families of undocumented workers are guilty?

Then why don’t we mourn the over the 30,000 women and children who will die today of malnutrition related disease (UN/WFP)?  There’s rarely a headline about them.

Jesus has a bewildering word to say about tragic death, found only in the gospel of Luke:

At that very time there were some present who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.  He asked them, ‘Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans?  No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as they did.  Or those eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them—do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem?  No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did.’ (Luke 13:1-5)

In a culture which assumed that God punished the sinner and rewarded the righteous these words must have been puzzling indeed.  Jesus is suggesting that we all, sinner or righteous, stand in equal need of forgiveness and grace.  He seems to be suggesting that there are times when bad things happen to good people without any reason at all.

Is there a hierarchy of tragedy?

Jesus would seem to be saying "no."  Any life taken outside the natural order of things is an affront to the God who creates life and who wants nothing more than for each of God's children to have life abundantly (John 10:10).

Was President Obama correct to lower the flags to half-mast for the innocent deaths of movie-goers in Colorado?  In extending recognition usually reserved for those who serve our nation in uniform or office, does this gesture suggest an even larger national unity?

When the innocent suffer we all suffer.  When any of our community is lessened, we all lose.  And if that be the case, how could the boundaries of nation, race or class ever define the limits of our compassion? 

Jesus would seem to be suggesting that they don’t.