Doesn't Tragedy Deserve Respect?

Brooke Balzano
bb240415@ohio.edu

In today's world, tragedy is an unfortunate reoccurrence. Innocent lives are lost repeatedly, and our world has started to get used to hearing about mass shootings. For years the most notable shooting was Columbine in 1999, where 13 innocent people lost their lives. No one anticipated this tragedy to happen to them when they woke up that morning. No one realized what words would be their last. As tragedy struck, news outlets gathered to the Denver high school and began to broadcast the news. People deserved to know about the shooting and it created awareness for family members who could not contact their loved one, but when is the news coverage too much?

On December 14, 2012, I was sitting in my art classroom when my home state was changed forever. The teacher stopped the class from working to alert everyone that there had been a school shooting in Newtown, only 45 minutes away from my high school. I went on to Google and searched Newtown, Connecticut shooting to learn that Sandy Hook Elementary School had faced a tragedy that would compare to no other. Someone had entered the school with an AR-15 and murdered innocent children. Children who likely never had learned how to ride a bike, had their first kiss or lost their baby teeth. Children who would never learn to drive, legally drink alcohol or get married. Children who did not know that when they said goodbye to their parents that Friday morning, it would be the last time they saw them.

Source: WPTV 

News stations fled to the scene, each one trying to gain maximum coverage and break the stories first. This tragedy terrified residents of Connecticut but relied heavily on these reports for updated information. As time went on in the day, the death count seemed to raise little by little. It was a day I will never forget. On Monday morning, an announcement was made that the tragedy hit even closer to home because one of the children who lost their life was the grandson of Mrs. Pinto, a home-economics teacher.

Headline after headline was filled with the tragedy of Sandy Hook. There was even a conspiracy theory released that stated the shooting was entirely fabricated by the government and that the children who died never existed in the first place.

In a time filled with darkness, Connecticut natives were searching for some kind of light. News outlets covered funerals of children which began to blur the line of reporting for the interest of the people and being respectful. This massacre was a national story causing people all over the country to pay their respects to the family in any way that they could, although it seemed that local news stations couldn't do the same.

Victor Cruz, then a wide-receiver for the New York Giants, paid his respects to the family of Jack Pinto, a 6-year-old whose life was lost during the shooting. Cruz had learned that Jack was a Giants fan and that he (Cruz) was his favorite player, so he chose to pay his respects to him on the field. Victor Cruz stepped out on that Sunday with "R.I.P. Jack Pinto" and "My Hero" written on his cleats to honor him. He later drove to Newton to meet with the Pinto family and pay his respects in person, instead of just on the field.

Source: GumBumper

In a world filled with tragedy, it's easy to focus on the negatives. Even though "if it bleeds, it leads" may be a standard phrase heard in the newsroom, those who have bled become the subject of a tragedy. The lives that are written about in these stories are real people with families who are impacted and have feelings, so shouldn't respect go hand in hand with the headline?