So now comes the 10 stages of any modern gun tragedy:
- Thoughts and prayers
- Standing in solidarity and vigils for peace
- Rejecting evil and searching for answers
- Flowers, candles and messages at the scene
- Posting of Facebook memes
- Calls for more gun control
- Calls for more armed guards in houses of worship
- Politicians seeking advantage and laying blame
- Rejecting logical solutions
- Moving on
It's a pernicious cycle. It happens over and over. Somehow I've become sort of numb to it all. I get why all the responses and activities are needed by people, but there doesn't seem to be any willingness to attack the problem and look for real solutions.
The thing I hear over and over is bemoaning the fact that there is so much hate. That evil prevails. Well, I've got news for you. Evil is part of the human condition. As long as we humans crave power, we will have evil. The trick is to corral it and control it. The trick is for good and decent people to win. We've all seen the old Western movies where towns are terrorized by a few assholes who crave power, land, water, whatever. That lasts while the masses cower until a few people get the gumption to do something about it (usually aided by some badass good guy). Think that's just a movie? It's not. Look at some of the shitholes (yes, there are such places) around the world that descended into fear and anarchy until someone came along to stand up.
So what should we do? Stand up. Stand up in the sense of supporting increased funding our law enforcement organizations to do their job. Stand up to supporting finding hate organizations and driving them out of business. And this is a big part of funding law enforcement. Stand up to identifying mentally ill creeps who want to kill for no reason and lock them up. Stand up to recognizing that the gun/rifle is not evil. The people who wield the weapon to kill innocents is evil. If you're the type who want some controls, fine. That can be worked. But don't get trapped into thinking that getting rid of weapons gets rid of evil or creeps who will do evil. Stand up to electing people who will take a strong and consistent view of supporting law enforcement, rooting out hate organizations, and funding programs to take the crazy people off the street. Stand up to condemning every utterance of hate against particular groups. Black, Jew, immigrant...I don't care. When you see this bullshit, have the courage to stand up. I haven't spent a lot of time on our nation's university campuses of late, but I'm told antisemitism is gaining ground there. Stand up against it. And there are others. But the bottom line is to take a stand. Everyone. Since 9/11 we've had a saying that is in the back of everyone's mind...if you see something, say something. Stand up to committing to live that saying and doing your part to eradicate this evil. And finally, stand up to taking a risk if you find yourself in the presence of evil unfolding. Run toward it. Do what you can to kill it.
Today everything we see and do is reactive. So it will happen again. We all need to stand up. Individually. The next time this happens (and there will be a next time) be able to say you've done what you can to prevent it. Stand up.
The thing I hear over and over is bemoaning the fact that there is so much hate. That evil prevails. Well, I've got news for you. Evil is part of the human condition. As long as we humans crave power, we will have evil. The trick is to corral it and control it. The trick is for good and decent people to win. We've all seen the old Western movies where towns are terrorized by a few assholes who crave power, land, water, whatever. That lasts while the masses cower until a few people get the gumption to do something about it (usually aided by some badass good guy). Think that's just a movie? It's not. Look at some of the shitholes (yes, there are such places) around the world that descended into fear and anarchy until someone came along to stand up.
So what should we do? Stand up. Stand up in the sense of supporting increased funding our law enforcement organizations to do their job. Stand up to supporting finding hate organizations and driving them out of business. And this is a big part of funding law enforcement. Stand up to identifying mentally ill creeps who want to kill for no reason and lock them up. Stand up to recognizing that the gun/rifle is not evil. The people who wield the weapon to kill innocents is evil. If you're the type who want some controls, fine. That can be worked. But don't get trapped into thinking that getting rid of weapons gets rid of evil or creeps who will do evil. Stand up to electing people who will take a strong and consistent view of supporting law enforcement, rooting out hate organizations, and funding programs to take the crazy people off the street. Stand up to condemning every utterance of hate against particular groups. Black, Jew, immigrant...I don't care. When you see this bullshit, have the courage to stand up. I haven't spent a lot of time on our nation's university campuses of late, but I'm told antisemitism is gaining ground there. Stand up against it. And there are others. But the bottom line is to take a stand. Everyone. Since 9/11 we've had a saying that is in the back of everyone's mind...if you see something, say something. Stand up to committing to live that saying and doing your part to eradicate this evil. And finally, stand up to taking a risk if you find yourself in the presence of evil unfolding. Run toward it. Do what you can to kill it.
Today everything we see and do is reactive. So it will happen again. We all need to stand up. Individually. The next time this happens (and there will be a next time) be able to say you've done what you can to prevent it. Stand up.
2 comments:
Hi, Mike,
I really enjoyed this piece and especially feel it's important to stand up. These killing will continue until our government does something about the gun culture in this country,. I'm not for abolishing guns; I'm for common-sense licensing and restrictions to ensure public safety.
After a mass shooting, Australia outlawed most guns. Yes, there may be the occasional shooting, but not mass shootings like we are suffering across this country.
Our government needs to follow the example of New Zealand and make automatic rifles illegal. Citizens do not need to own these.
Yes, good people need to not normalize these situations and we all need to stand up and speak out. Thank you for doing so.
Marcia
Marcia, thanks for the comments. I always appreciate feedback and thoughtful dialog. I get your frustration and desire to control guns to solve the problem. A couple of things come to my mind about your ideas. First, automatic rifles are already illegal. Second, while semi-automatic rifles (which are NOT assault rifles) get a lot of attention, the truth is that way, way more people are killed by hand guns than rifles. If the concern if loss of life, then hand guns are the issue. But since there are 350 million or so hand guns in the country, control is not logical. People killed by hand guns are in a different category because it's so difficult to hit and kill with a hand gun. So the rifle becomes the weapon of choice for the mass killer. I'd have no problem making it legal but very difficult to obtain a semi-automatic rifle, but that would take bipartisan agreement by Federal level politicians. Good luck with that in this environment. Third, we are not Australia or New Zealand. Government decreee may work there but it won't here. Like it or not, the 2nd Amendment has taken on an advocacy that would prevent similar confiscation. I don't have any answers but I believe this. It's been consistently shown that the best deterent to a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun. I wish our "gun culture" hadn't evolved to where it is today. But we are where we are. Finally, to me the most chilling thing is the rise of anti-semitism. It is frankly beyond my comprehension.
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