On the heels of vigils to remember the vicitims of the Collier Township shooting, the PG's Rob Rogers hit the nail on the head with his editorial cartoon this morning.
The cartoon doesn't appear on the PG's site yet, but check out the August 10, 2009 entry when it does. Link to Rob Rogers cartoons.
Nice work. Let's hope that the paper continues to cover issues involving violence against women. Pittsburgh may be a great place for working moms, especially relative to the kind of place it was decades ago, but there is this huge other side to that story.
Showing posts with label tragedy in collier township. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tragedy in collier township. Show all posts
Monday, August 10, 2009
Thursday, August 06, 2009
Thoughts on the Collier Shooting
The Post-Gazette's coverage of the Collier Township tragedy has been comprehensive, but both the news side and the editorial side have missed an important part of the story.
On the news side, the events of Tuesday night have been packaged as the acts of a deranged, isolated lunatic, assaulting innocent strangers, a narrative that is familiar to all. (There is a bizarre hint in that piece that the Internet is to blame, because it allegedly contributes to social isolation.)
On the editorial side, the deranged-individual-and-innocent-strangers narrative has been supplemented by a Rob Rogers cartoon that pushes the gun control button, as if the tragedy could have been avoided had guns been less easily available.
Some people get what's missing, including the organizers of a candlelight vigil being organized for tonight (Thursday, August 6) at 5:30 pm at the City County Building.
What's missing is this:
The shootings in Collier represent a horrific act of violence against women. Violence against the three women who were killed. Violence against the nine women who were wounded. Violence against all of the women who happened to be at the gym at LA Fitness on Tuesday evening. And indirectly but distinctly, violence against all women everyone. Wives and girlfriends and partners, mothers and sisters, daughters and nieces, friends and neighbors and colleagues. The shootings in Collier meet my definition of terrorism: acts of violence against unarmed individuals who are accused of representing an entire community. In his mind, the gunman was attacking all women.
If you are a woman, then it's likely that you know this already. If you're not a woman, then ask one to share her feelings. Or watch and listen as women react to this tragedy. For them, the world just got a little scarier.
All of us need to change that.
On the news side, the events of Tuesday night have been packaged as the acts of a deranged, isolated lunatic, assaulting innocent strangers, a narrative that is familiar to all. (There is a bizarre hint in that piece that the Internet is to blame, because it allegedly contributes to social isolation.)
On the editorial side, the deranged-individual-and-innocent-strangers narrative has been supplemented by a Rob Rogers cartoon that pushes the gun control button, as if the tragedy could have been avoided had guns been less easily available.
Some people get what's missing, including the organizers of a candlelight vigil being organized for tonight (Thursday, August 6) at 5:30 pm at the City County Building.
What's missing is this:
The shootings in Collier represent a horrific act of violence against women. Violence against the three women who were killed. Violence against the nine women who were wounded. Violence against all of the women who happened to be at the gym at LA Fitness on Tuesday evening. And indirectly but distinctly, violence against all women everyone. Wives and girlfriends and partners, mothers and sisters, daughters and nieces, friends and neighbors and colleagues. The shootings in Collier meet my definition of terrorism: acts of violence against unarmed individuals who are accused of representing an entire community. In his mind, the gunman was attacking all women.
If you are a woman, then it's likely that you know this already. If you're not a woman, then ask one to share her feelings. Or watch and listen as women react to this tragedy. For them, the world just got a little scarier.
All of us need to change that.
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