Minneapolis

Why is it so hard for many politicians and media commentators to speak openly and honestly in the face of such tragedy?

Yet another tragedy in the United States, when a lone gunman opened fire into a Catholic church in Minneapolis in the state of Minnesota, killing two young children and wounding 17 others.

Such acts of senseless violence rightly generate horror, sadness, grief, questioning, pain and much more. Beyond the violence and grief, I was struck how the response by politicians and legacy media exemplifies much of what is wrong in our societies, and that until these faults are corrected - notably people being able to talk freely and openly about things - such awful tragedies will happen again.

I might step back for a moment though to another tragedy, this one from Nashville in 2023. In this horror shooting, a biological woman (believing herself to be man or ‘trans man’) killed three children, three adults, and injured two others.

I recall this vividly insofar as I made comment in the New Zealand parliament, drawing attention to verifiable fact that the shooter was a biological woman. The timing of my comments was intentional for just days earlier, the Green Party and others were screaming how ‘all violence is perpetrated by cis white males’. This in turn was also the time that the trans activists, aptly supported by the Greens and Labour Party, were busy beating up women in Albert Park, paradoxically in the name of non-violence, tolerance, and love.

What was striking though - other than having to boringly put up with a media frenzy - was not any point of accuracy, but that I had dared to speak the truth. The murderer in Nashville was a biological woman, and suffering from gender dysphoria. Ipso facto, not all violence is caused by ‘cis white men’. Granted, one didn’t need the Nashville tragedy to know this, but the madness of gender ideology can only be sustained through censoring discussion.

I share this as an introduction, for we see similar and worse dynamics coming out of the Minneapolis shooting. Politicians and media immediately shied away, or deliberately obfuscated, from the reality of what happened once it was clear the target was a Catholic Church and that the shooter was a biological man who thought he was a woman (i.e. trans).

As news broke of a shooting in Minneapolis, coverage - including in New Zealand media - was front page and fulsome (or as fulsome as it can be in the early hours of a breaking story). A few hours later, as more details emerged, the story slowly disappeared from the headlines and as I write now, completely sidelined.

I have suggested two motives. The first is that the shooter was trans. The moment it was clear the killer was a biological man but believing himself a woman, the nature of reporting changed. Various outlets avoided any hint of the shooter’s identity, while others worked frantically to emphasise his preferred feminine name.

The Mayor of Minneapolis, Jacob Frey, decided the tragedy was a priority call to protect the trans community - the mayor saying this a mere few hours after the murder of little children in a place of religious worship. His statement was, in effect, that the shooter and the trans community were the victims. He couched his words as a call against vilification yet it simultaneously was a call to censorship and silence. If people cannot openly discuss who the shooter is, how on earth can the issues ever be confronted and controlled?

Alongside this, there was a relative quick desire to diminish the target of the attack. A clear and deliberate attack on Catholics at Mass became quickly described as an attack on Christians, and eventually an attack on a place of worship, and finally an attack.

Unsurprisingly, the inability to talk clearly about the shooter and the targeted meant no one in authority seemed able to ascertain the motive for the attack. That the shooter left a complete manifesto, was explicit in his desire to kill Catholics/Christians, Jews, and Donald Trump seemed lost on reporters right up to the chief of police. I’m no Sherlock Holmes, but when the shooter’s statements - including written explicitly on his weapons - accords with what he does, then there’s an unambiguous motive!

Related, but how we address the manifestos of shooters is a difficult one. We certainly do not want copy cat behaviour nor these troubled people being glorified. Yet on the other hand, when the public are denied an ability to read/see the motivations for themselves, those in charge create their own narrative.

A quick thought on the importance of prayer. Again, the situationally challenged mayor of the city was quick to say prayer was worthless. To be somewhat fair on him, I suspect part of his intention was to say that more is required than simply platitudes. But this approach was tone deaf, doubly so when you consider those targeted - people who do have a religious belief and believe in the importance of prayer. Sadly, I feel the response was a further insult as it moved the response away from the belief system of the victims to the prejudices of politicians, reporters, and others.

I will simply quote one of the Minnesota’s Bishops, Robert Barron, when he says:

“Prayer is the raising of the mind and heart to God, which strikes me as altogether appropriate precisely at times of great pain."

My last point is simple. These tragedies are horrific, but if we are ever to address them, then we need to be honest, upfront, and clear about the who, what, and why. Sadly, the reporting and approach of recent days gives me little confidence as the intent has been to ignore, obfuscate, and gaslight. For the sake of these latest victims and many others, we need to do better.