Why would a young, bright successful guy go on a suicide mission?

Last Friday, Noah Green, age 25, went on a rampage ramming his car into two Capitol police officers who he never met. Then he jumped out of his car with a knife and attacked them. He killed officer William “Billy” Evans and was killed himself. He knew what his fate would be that day.

Green seemed to be a nice guy. He was good looking, successful in sports, educated with a degree in finance and part of a large family that cared about him and tried to care for him in the last few weeks as their concern grew for his mental health.

Everyone is searching for answers. His family believes that being hit in the head during football repeatedly contributed to his mental health condition. He said he was given Xanax without him knowing it and it left him addicted to the drug. He was searching for a spiritual answer, and he told his brother that he was going to commit suicide. He reportedly had gone to South Africa to find himself, and while there, he jumped in front of a car and was hospitalized.

In his spiritual journey, he was looking to Louis Farrakhan as Jesus Christ, and he identified as a Nation of Islam member, took steps to legally change his name and was obviously trying to get Louis Farrakhan’s attention with his Facebook posts.

But why kill the police?

CNN reported that in Green’s social media he wrote that the U.S. government was the No. 1 enemy of Black people. Where have we heard this rhetoric before? I’m sure he was subjected to the untrue rhetoric that police are out to kill Black people more than any other race.

He was a 2019 university grad. He himself said he was able to work hard and achieve all the goals he set for himself, so obviously no one was holding him back. I get that he was having mental health issues, but this is just another reason why we shouldn’t be teaching critical race theory and telling our bright Black students that they are victims, they are oppressed, their country is evil and needs to be torn down and rebuilt from nothing, every White person is racist and hates them and our government is their No. 1 enemy and all the police are out to kill them.

How can that not breed nihilism? No doubt Green’s parents taught him that he could achieve anything he wanted to and he accomplished much, but at some point he lost hope.

That is a dangerous place to be.

Just like the White students who are being taught that they are all racist, privileged and oppressors, even if they are dirt poor and community servants. Companies are doing training to help their employees be “less White.”

We used to teach our children individualism, that they could achieve anything they worked hard for, no matter what their race, religion, family background, sex, etc. They were taught that they lived in a great country with a less than perfect past which was continually improving.

When you teach students they are either victims or oppressors, their country is evil, there is no God, the police are indiscriminately trying to kill them and their future is bleak, what do we expect them to do with that information except to become nihilistic? And when there is no hope, there is no future.

Julie Reeder can be reached by email at [email protected].