Why do we need to know why?

Usually, I hide my thoughts behind satire and humor – an attempt to disguise my jabs and punches directed toward the powers which drive public opinion and emotional response to a tragedy. But, today, I will write connected.

Today, I will write with personal knowledge.

Who is responsible for our children in school?

What are these individuals’ responsibilities?

How should these individuals be disciplined when they have failed at protecting the children?

After a tragedy, the question is always – why?

Why did this happen? A question that forces the mind into lamenting. A state of mind that does not work towards answers but dwells tirelessly on unanswerable questions and placates emotions.

The question of why reduces the emotional response and slowly allows the impact of the incident to fade.

Why? – a time-wasting question? Why? – is a pointless pursuit. Why? – is meaningless to prevent future tragedy.

How? – is the correct question.

How did this tragedy happen?

Objective answers are born from how questions. Objective answers create definitive solutions. Definitive solutions correct the error and solve problems.

Therefore, answers to “how” questions make “why” questions disappear.

Why do we fear “how” questions?

Often, ” how ” questions do not shift blame, whereas “why” questions allow individuals to find fault in others.

“Why”- questions lead to blame games. These subjective solutions arrive on the scene eager to produce division and are often labeled “political .” Moreover, “why” is elastic and malleable. Easily manipulable in the hands of cultural, political, or dogmatic forces.

“How” questions do not bend.

How did the individual enter the building? Through an unlocked door? Was the do supposed to be unlocked? Whose responsibility was it to lock the door? Easy questions with simple answers. Answers can create responses that will limit tragedy.

So much more straightforward than “why.”

Maybe if we focus on the “How,” the “why” will not be asked someday.

Just as a bartender is responsible for the actions of an over-served patron, an administrator is responsible for students’ behaviors.

Let’s, for a moment, return to the “why” question. Why did an individual do such a horrific act?

Again, an asinine question.

“How” did the individual arrive at such a state of mind?

The “how” question could produce accurate answers.

I challenge the schools and administrators to look at the disregarded discipline referrals or the redirected cries from teachers. What will be found are the answers to why these tragedies happen. Will we see a progression of discipline referrals that sat in administrator inboxes? Will, we will find a multitude of instances of threats and bullying. Will, we will discover administrators whose responses to teachers are “have you called the parent?”. Will, we will find crumbling builds with broken locks and lackadaisical School Resource Officers. Will we find days-upon days of in-school suspensions for children and young adults with mental illnesses?

Will, we find a million answers to “how” did this happen?

As for the why, one can only surmise that it lacks attention to these details. The detail that are the duties of the school principals and administrators are those individuals who should be criminally liable for the safety of the children.

Major Robert Simpson Neighbors – A True Texan

Everything is bigger in Texas, including the tall tales. Those malleable stories build the pedestals, materialize the laurels, and fabricate the “facts” of the state’s iconic founding fathers – individuals whose sacrifices and servitude reward their memories with stained-glass images and names on universities.
These rough and tough Texans’, who lost and won, stole and gave, gained independence, then gave it away, histories are as dynamic as the shifting sands of Monahans.
Okay – I will stop.
Texas is fantastic, and the history is just great. I would not change a thing unless that thing would make history more extraordinary and the state that much more wonderful.
Sorry – I will stop.
Not all Texas history heroes have to have their stories inflated. One such fellow is Major Robert Simpson Neighbors. Neighbors was an Indian Agent, a significant player in the relocation of Kiowa and Comanche throughout Texas. Neighbors believed in going out into Commancharia and making connections with each tribe. This proximity allows a personal relationship with the tribes. Unfortunately, his modus Operandi caused many Anglo settles grief – as they felt his connection to the “savage” tribes inappropriate. Nevertheless, he continued to do his duty with fidelity and respect.
Neighbors ultimately helped create a reservation along the Brazos River just south of present-day Newcastle, Texas. This location was also a stone’s throw from Fort Belknap. Unfortunately, this was not a good location for the reservation.
The settlers’ outcries of Indian depredations rang out across the prairie, echoing off the hills. The heated exchanges between the groups exploded into violence. Something had to change. In attempting to do what was right, Major Neighbors organized the tribes and delivered them from Texas to an Oklahoma reservation.
Undefeated, Neighbors returned to Texas with the expectation to keep serving with consistent fairness. Instead, a bullet awaited him on his return to Fort Belknap. The shooter disagreed with Neighbor’s ideas.
Then, this true Texan was taken to the town cemetery and buried without much honor. Major Robert Simpson Neighbors rests in an unkempt cemetery in a cow pasture. An individual whose history is not inflated or fabricated. A Texan who sacrificed his life in an attempt to maintain peace.

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