In light of recent events, such as the tragedies of the Oregon community college mass shooting, the murder of a newly transferred student, and the disappearance and discovery of the body of another Indiana University student within the past week, I thought to take some time to reflect on what it means to be human. I do not wish to comment on the events themselves, but rather the surrounding implications about what makes us, us.

I spend a lot of time in self-reflection, obviously for personal reasons, but also to better understand other people. When thinking about the previously mentioned events, I contemplate the meaning of human nature, specifically, what drives us to make certain decisions in regards to how they will affect others. We are living in a society where justice and liberty reign supreme, and yet, individuals may still feel oppressed by the world or by their own psyches. The choices that individuals make in response to feeling unheard or misrepresented may be negative or positive, but what does it mean, what does it say, when someone acts out in a negative manner instead of positively countering their fears, doubts, and impositions?

We will never understand the inner workings of every human who answers to their faults in a destructive manner. The media will host and interview politicians, social scientists, or any pundit off the street to entice public interest and essentially promote some kind of gratification or reasoning for why and how an individual can commit an act of violence. But the truth of the matter is completely different from this notion of public justification.

Unfortunately, I sometimes find a tendency to give up, to equate humanity with sicknesses and faults and hurting others, as if human nature dictates these actions with the explanation that “this person was just ill, they had issues, and that is the way it is." But the truth, in essence, is that we are good, benevolent, and discontent with accepting things at face value. What makes us human is our ability and desire to understand the bad and correct it with good.