Guns, Hate, and Living Angry
The new American way has become Guns, Hate, and Living Angry. There is an old Greek saying that the fish rots from the head. If a leader bases his campaign on Fear, Anger, and Hate, then it is natural that it pervades the population: who embody that fear, anger, and hate.
I was reminded of an event close to home in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, that occured 9 years ago, that a film on it was recently made " 36 seconds. A portrait of a hate crime". As also recently reported on local news by Mariah Ellis WNCN, CBS 17.
I remember that horrific tragedy vividly, both because of its horrific and senseless nature, and also because I was at the time extremely worried that my wife was the victim, when local news announced only that a murder had just taken place, and I could not get through to her on her cell phone. You see at the time I had just reported to the Dean's office of UNC Chapel Hill School of Medicine (SOM), my concern that an employee was a great risk for being a mass-murderer, what I term a mass-murderer-in-waiting (MMIW), and I had thought the Dean's office, or the Radiology Department may have leaked to the MMIW that I had initiated an alarm to the risk represented After some hours I learned it was not her, so relieved, but learned that it was 3 wonderful young Muslim adults, 2 of whom UNC students. This adds to the list of murder victims of a small university town, most recently Prof Zijie Chan, years earlier Eve Carson, and before her another young woman shot and killed on Estes Blvd a couple of blocks from where I lived at the time.
Guns, hate, and living angry is the septic infected sore on American Society, which is encouraged and festered by some members of one political party, in particular the head.
In a tragic, but not unexpected twist of fate, I had reported about the extreme risk a member of the SOM played to shoot and kill atleast 25 other members of the medical institution. If this had come to pass, I would have been a hero: I reported 25 people would be killed,then they were killed, what a hero. Since they had not been killed, UNC Chapel Hill senior administrators including in the Legal department, in a cunning vindictive way concocted a false trivial charge to fire me on. So this reflects the catch 22 of reporting a mass murder event; if one reports that a perp is at risk to kill 25 people, and then they are killed, you are a hero for reporting; and a shame no one listened; if however no one is killed, then you are a trouble maker if it casts administration and legal in a bad light. And a trouble maker has to be eliminated at all cost, no matter how accomplished they may be. There is a fundamental conundrum.
This is the US environment we live in: if you report a possible mass murder event, and a bunch of people are killed, then you would be celebrated as a hero, if you report a possible mass murder event, and it does not come to pass (and it not coming to pass likely because of the reporting) then you are a problem and should be fired. I am focused on changing that narrative, by drawing attention to the critical importance of holding to account senior administrators, who allowed this environment to exist and fester..
The entire murder (term for a flock of crows) of actual murderers, MMIW, administrators who allowed the environment to occur should be held to account, commensurate with their responsibility. I favor videoed with televised and social media posting of Elizabethan I justice levied against these type of murderers. No existing deterrent has shown any effect, and proposed corrective measures, such as increased mental health care, are unlikely to either ever occur or have any significant impact.
This Chapel Hill mass mass-murder was a horrific crime beyond imagination. that was meted out to innocent young Muslims. In contrast, my being fired for speaking up about a potential mass murder event and bringing to the attention of the Chancellor that another doctor had operated drunk for 20 years, although the firing malicious, in no way does it compare to the events that befell these young adults. Yes these two events at UNC Chapel Hill SOM represent the worst medical misconduct in modern US history, and a number of patients would have been killed, but my dismissal is insignificant by comparison. But as the murders of the young Muslims and my reporting of the misconducts occurred at about the same time, I unite them in my memory, of terrible and tragic Chapel Hill events. The Chapel Hill mass-murder, and the possible mass murder that I reported.
What can be done to diminish the epidemic of murders:
Politicians whose main platform is to stir up fear and anger in the public should not be elected, and not only the opposing political party but the same political party must understand the importance of this. This could be consider the Hitler-effect in politics..
As guns are so common in the US, there is little that can be done to decrease their presence in gang-related murders. The gun is out of the bag. But preventing the new sale of army-type guns, and not allowing mentally ill or individuals under 25 from buying guns will stem many of the school killings- many of these killings are from recently purchased guns, and by young angry men
Harsh punishment, for murderers, MMIW if appropriate, and in hospital and university settings, for administrators who have allowed. and especially if later, covered up serious misconducts that involve the potential for and actual injury and death of patients and other members of the medical center/ university community.
I do not intend to distract from the account of the 3 Muslim students. I have never forgotten them, and will never forget them. Their lives were so full of potential, joy and hope, viciously taken from them. Elizabethan I justice..
This blog was written prior to the shootings in Kansas City.
Richard Semelka, MD
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