America's National Shame -- "It's Happened Again"

 

 As the following NPR chart shows, the U.S. rate is hundreds of times worse than that of Singapore or Japan, and 99 times deadlier than the U.K.

It’s happened again.

The problem with that sentence, after the horrific massacre at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, is that I could write it almost every day and it would be true …

James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, and the other founders of this great nation could not have wanted or foreseen that the Bill of Rights would be bastardized to the point of allowing the mentally ill and teenagers to walk around with weapons that can fire multiple rounds per second …

No rational human being can think it makes any sense that an 18-year-old who can’t even drink under Texas law, could purchase assault weapons and high-capacity magazines and massacre teachers and 10-year-olds in an elementary school.

No rational human being could have foreseen a United States where it was easier for most adults to buy a semi-automatic rifle than to buy baby formula.

– Antonio Mora, award-winning journalist. “Opinion: America’s Great Shame Shatters Uvalde and the Country.” May 25, 2022

America's National Shame is gun violence. The people in the United States seem to have no threshold for the continual carnage wrought by those with firearms. As the rest of the world looks on, it sees a culture here that lacks self-awareness of its own violent nature.

Gun violence is as American as apple pie, baseball … and, yes … something we seem “proudly to hail.” What has the nation become when parents fear sending their children to school, to the park, or to church, for that matter, for fear of gunfire?

We have reached that place in the U.S. today. As Antonio Mora says, “We are so inured to these horrors that we say 'It’s happened again,' continue what we were doing, and soon forget. We’re inexcusably numb and have mostly given up; so have many of our politicians.”

I hear people openly express their consciousness of guilt as they endure unspeakable tragedies of gun violence. They question the various causes – lack of mental health screening, need for tighter school security, breakdown of family values – yet so many refuse to consider the gun as part of the equation for destructive actions. They must surely understand that firearms are the common denominator.

The gun faithful say “guns don't fire themselves.” They believe that the Second Amendment allows them to use firearms without tighter regulations. In truth, they have become slaves of the Second Amendment, gun manufacturers, and the gun lobby. Congress, in fear of losing gun owners' votes, is content to have another moment of silence in honor of the innocent victims and once again refuse reform. All in the name of the Constitution.

There is no Middle for Shameful Americans. Now, the political division is too great. Those who believe that they must maintain a "well-regulated militia, necessary to the security of a free state" won't consider how firearms actually threaten security. Their fear and emotion prevents them from understanding the antiquated nature of the amendment.

When the rubber meets the road and reforms are proposed, gun enthusiasts refuse to hear how the lack of restrictions contributes to the right of all people to pursue life, liberty, and happiness. They simple revert to reciting the NRA motto: "I'll give you my gun when you pry it from my cold, dead hands" and they walk away from any considerations of mutual concessions.

It's always this black-and-white, false accusation that seals the minds of gun advocates –

“You want to take my guns.” They want to drag you back to the slippery slope of “give ’em an inch, and they’ll take a mile” to justify their argument. In this case, they truly wield a fatal fallacy – a bloodstained idiom that evidently still works to their advantage.

I, for one, don't want to “take” guns for hunting, sport, or castle self-defense. In fact, I could revert my shame and live with a national dialogue on gun violence that supports and passes common sense, evidence-based reform. That dialogue would include experts from law enforcement, national security, health fields (including medical and mental health officials), schools, and other agencies that have a stake in the outcomes.

I'll close by declaring that my conscience is not fighting guns. Does it surprise you I say that? I believe we are fighting violence instead, hatred in which firearms play a most significant part. Most importantly I am fighting apathy and denial – evils that permeate our minds and hearts and make us immune to reflection of our National Shame.

I must ask you if you really care about gun violence? All of it.

Do you care about those in inner-city neighborhoods, places many see as filled with “undesirables” – poor minorities plagued by poverty, drugs, and crime?

Do you care about what happens to a wave of new immigrants who are largely struggling to fit into a foreign culture and to find a better life?

Do you care about handicapped individuals that many categorize as “crazy” or “defective” members of society?

Do you care about not only the bullied, but also the bullier? Or, would you prefer to simply lock up the “bad seeds” and extinguish their existence … usurp their treasured “right to life” you gave them as unborn fetuses?

If you truly care for all Americans, how far are you willing to take that commitment? Instead of filling the land with more guns, are you willing to dig into the roots of the epidemic of gun violence? It's a daunting task, but one that requires full participation and eventual compromise. No militia can effect the needed changes. To avoid the problem once more makes it fester and grow – the metastasis of the cancer must be immediately addressed with direct and aggressive action.

Gun violence is not in remission.

It’s happened again.

 

The Genius Of The Crowd

By Charles Bukowski

there is enough treachery, hatred violence absurdity in the average
human being to supply any given army on any given day

and the best at murder are those who preach against it
and the best at hate are those who preach love
and the best at war finally are those who preach peace

those who preach god, need god
those who preach peace do not have peace
those who preach peace do not have love

beware the preachers
beware the knowers
beware those who are always reading books
beware those who either detest poverty
or are proud of it
beware those quick to praise
for they need praise in return
beware those who are quick to censor
they are afraid of what they do not know
beware those who seek constant crowds for
they are nothing alone
beware the average man the average woman
beware their love, their love is average
seeks average

but there is genius in their hatred
there is enough genius in their hatred to kill you
to kill anybody
not wanting solitude
not understanding solitude
they will attempt to destroy anything
that differs from their own
not being able to create art
they will not understand art
they will consider their failure as creators
only as a failure of the world
not being able to love fully
they will believe your love incomplete
and then they will hate you
and their hatred will be perfect

like a shining diamond
like a knife
like a mountain
like a tiger
like hemlock

their finest art