Charles Carl Roberts IV, 32, of Bart Township, Pa., entered the
one-room West Nickel Mines Amish School in Nickel Mines, Pa.,
yesterday morning carrying “a 9mm semiautomatic pistol, a 12-gauge
shotgun and a rifle, along with a bag with about 600 rounds of
ammunition, two cans of smokeless powder, two knives and a stun gun
on his belt,” the Washington Post reported. Evidently he
was angry about some past humiliation he suffered years before the
Amish schoolchildren he terrorized and murdered had even been born.
Sounds familiar.
The Nickel Mines tragedy was the third school shooting in a
week, and it further highlighted the vulnerability of schools,
where firearms typically are not allowed on campus even in the
possession of administrators. But yesterday’s shooting contained
more than the typical anti-gun-control lesson missed by the Michael
Moores of the world.
The Old Order Amish victimized by Roberts attempt to live a sort
of Utopian life. They segregate themselves from the realities of
human civilization in an attempt to protect their community from
the evils of modernity. And despite the inescapable impossibility
of that task, they persist in the delusion.
I don’t mean to belittle the Amish, or any traditional sect that
eschews modern temptations. There is much about the modern world to
dislike, and I am determined to protect my own children from its
evils. My point is that withdrawing from the world might offer
comfort, but it is no protection.
It is better to face reality than turn one’s back on it, to
combat evil rather than hide from it.
I think of the terrified girls in their little Amish dresses,
bound, lined against the schoolhouse wall, and executed, and I
cannot help but immediately draw a parallel to Wall Street
Journal reporter Daniel Pearl and to the nearly 3,000 who
perished at the hands of other men seeking to settle old scores by
preying on the innocent.
Those little Amish girls died for what, not who, they were. A
man who reportedly felt he’d been wronged by a little girl in the
past sought his revenge not on the girl who’d wounded him, but on a
proxy. Daniel Pearl died because he was Jewish. The victims of 9/11
died because they were associated in the minds of the terrorists
with American power.
Constructing a grievance against a group that symbolizes various
things one hates is a favorite pastime of those who have convinced
themselves they are powerless, that they have been victimized by
forces beyond their control. Islamic radicals blame the West for
the backwardness of much of the Muslim and Arab worlds. People
everywhere blame “the Jews” for every problem under the sun. The
far-left blames “big corporations” or “special interests” for its
own failures in private and public life.
This transference has terrible consequences. It makes victims of
the innocent. And of course it does nothing to correct the
situation that initiated the grievance.
The killings at Nickel Mine are yet another reminder that those
who believe in individualism have an incredible uphill battle to
fight. Perhaps Charles Carl Roberts IV was just a lunatic. But his
taking vengeance upon innocent little girls for some perceived
slight or degradation from his own childhood provides an object
lesson in the horror that is wrought by the doctrine of collective
guilt.
Anytime we seek vengeance upon a group for what we perceive as
the sins of some individuals, we sin ourselves. Whether it is
beating a random Muslim because of what the terrorists did in
Islam’s name, or taxing inheritances because of what the
Rockefellers did a century ago, it is wrong.
Even the Amish of Lancaster County, Pa., cannot protect
themselves from guilt by association. That’s a pretty sobering
thought. It also helps illustrate the uselessness of wishing the
world were something it is not. We cannot make ourselves safe by
going about our business and hoping the rest of the world will
leave us alone. The world will not.
