COLUMN: Responses are becoming as disturbing as the moment

This year “Saturday Night Live” celebrates its 50th season. The NBC comedy sketch show has been around long enough to have its ups-and-downs. Some people think the show has lost its humor. Others say the recent casts won’t ever have the same chemistry as the initial cast and first few years. I think those are all great debates to have. I thought Mike Myers and Al Franken from the early 1990s were very good.

My favorite part of the show is the News Update. Colin Jost and Michael Che act as typical TV news anchors but tell a bunch of jokes and sarcastic comments about the headlines in the past weeks. Saturday Night Live does not have a new episode every week during the season.

What Jost and Che started out with last Saturday was a mix of emotions which I thought was intentional. More importantly, it was spot on. Last week UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was murdered on a New York City street outside a hotel. As you have probably heard since, the suspect has not been found. Jost and Che said the initial response by society and social media to the shooting was “health care stinks.” Another comment was the suspect was found attractive. The suspect was photographed on security cameras.

At that moment of the skit, my emotions were bumping heads. I wanted to laugh because how it was written and delivered. At the same time I wanted to show some sort of approval like Jost and Che were preaching morality at a church. Maybe they were?

The writers of News Update were well aware of what was on most social media sites as the days after the shooting passed. People explained how there was some sort of vengeance for Thompson’s death knowing their health care claim was denied. UnitedHealthcare uses lots of digits in its revenue and profit. Others say UnitedHealthcare also is a leader among insurance companies denying claims. The entire health insurance industry has been scrutinized at least since the Affordable Health Care Act during the first term of the Obama administration.

What happened Dec. 4 comes across as justifying a death to some. If checkbooks can define whoever writes the checks, it seems like social media posts are defining who we as a society can be at times. “Saturday Night Live” has also had insight on America’s collective response to various events.

We’ve reached another level with our country’s problem with gun violence. Little, if anything, happened after school children were killed in their school buildings to at least attempt to prevent future shootings. Now, we have people somehow feeling validated for having an administrator of an insurance company killed on a New York City street.

It’s not the first time society has done that this year. After the assassination attempt of president-elect Donald Trump in July, which the incident included one fatality, Trump supporters wore bandages on an ear like Trump did after one of the shots grazed his ear. The fatality was an afterthought. Corey Comperatore used his body as a shield against the bullets to protect his wife and daughter. He had been a fire department chief. His memorial service was extremely well attended.

Fortunately, the ear bandage support apparently stopped after the Republican National Convention. I wouldn’t be surprised if an ear bandage is worn by a supporter during Trump’s inauguration next month.

Intentionally living in smaller towns during my career, I have followed a few murders. I don’t remember any justifying moments from people when discussing who was killed, as if they needed to die. The comments were far more about the personal problems of those involved. “If they just could have straightened up their lives it may not have happened,” was a common sentiment.

Justin Strycharz drove five hours from Gilbertsville, Pennsylvania, to attend Comperatore’s visitation. Strycharz, 40, said he didn’t know Comperatore and wanted to show support, he told the USA Today newspaper.

“I was already upset about what happened before I knew who died,” Strycharz said after leaving the visitation. “This was a tragedy that shouldn’t have happened.”

It’s becoming a tragedy how we are responding to them.