Hawthorn Hill Journal by Richard deRosa

Southern Reflections

I write this not all that far from where the shooting occurred today [April 17] at Florida State University. Apparently there have been 81 mass shootings thus far this year. I am reminded once again of what the narrator of Herman Melville’s masterful, and disturbing short story, “Bartleby, the Scrivener” exclaims: “Ah, Bartleby! Ah, humanity!” One can interpret this in many ways, but at the heart of Bartleby’s indifference and preference for inactivity of any kind is an ineffable despair over the human condition. It offers one the possibility, at least philosophically, of opting out as a moral stance. That way, there is no guilt by association. I freely admit that far too often I have been tempted to pull a Bartleby. That I cannot do it is a testament not only to my upbringing and, luckily, a fine education, but a moral conviction that inaction itself is immoral. To what extent am I my brother’s keeper? If I feel a kinship with all of humanity, then I have an obligation to care about all of us, no matter our differences. As Rodney King so sagely reminded us some years ago, “We are all in this together.”