Emotions aren't everything.

Taiesha Edwards

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Ever get that feeling when something bad happens to the hero out of everyone in the whole movie? When you thought the hero would get back up and be alright but he/she didn’t and the movie ended? That heart throbbing feeling is exactly what I felt when I heard about the Sandy Hook School shooting. It was emotional for everyone, for people that did not even live in Connecticut or for anyone who had any relation to the school itself. To hear that tons of innocent children and teachers died while at school was devastating. School was thought of to be the safest place for children, but now who can agree to that?  This tragedy has opened the eyes of many, such as an author from the Connecticut Post named Bruce Morris. In his editorial, “Mental Health Support Key To Problem” Bruce describes the well known tragic mass murder that happened in Newtown, Connecticut. Bruce also tries to get to bottom of why this shooting occurred. The author’s argument is that the shooting occurred because of many possible reasons. Many of these reasons may be true, but the way he wrote this editorial angered me because he wasn’t precise on addressing one problem. His argument is not valid because it does not sound like a argument to begin with. Although the author provides ideas that boost his credibility his argument is full of fallacies and therefore confuses the audience.

This first fallacy that the author produces is hasty generalization. The author addresses that the reason for the school shooting is because people do not pay enough attention to their children and their health problems. In this quote, “about 60 percent of children and adolescents have untreated mental health problems is a sure recipe for future tragedies and an unproductive future..”, it contains a fallacy of hasty generalization because the author is saying that most people with mental health problems will be subjected to creating chaos, when many people who have mental health problems and are very successful. Him generalizing all kids, makes his point invalid and some readers might even take offense to it, if they are suffering from a mental disorder themselves.

Throughout the editorial the author makes the reader question his credibility. First he provides the uncited quote in the paragraph above this one, but then regains some of his credibility when he sees the other side of the problem, which is maybe parents and teachers are not trained or educated enough to notice that kids could have mental disorders. His credibility is shot down yet again when he uses a slippery slope fallacy, mentioning that Barack Obama brushed upon this topic before and wants to get money for programs that can help but it still will not be enough. This confuses the audience because now they don’t really have any hope for the programs to get funding.

As some readers can tell, Bruce is all over the place. He also mentions the gun regulations should be more strict. The author then touches on the topic of not being able to access health care and if you do have health insurance, it does not mean that you will get the proper care. This seems to be resorting to a straw man fallacy because he was seeing the opposing side and counteracting it. In this editorial it says all the solutions of how we can prevent these certain crimes. There is no arguing in that but so what, what can the reader do to help?

What have you read so far? A well known event that pulled on emotions and a disappointing editorial that seemed to have gotten no where but stating the problems and not many solutions. Personally, I do not understand what action Bruce wants me to take, seeing as I am a college student racking up debt and trying to maintain satisfactory grades. This makes me feel as if I can not help make those solutions come true. This editorial needs more facts and not to rely on this Sandy Hook situation to draw in readers and expect them to agree with whatever he says.