Do something.....
Aug. 8th, 2019 09:03 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
osodecanelaAs I drove home yesterday, I found myself in tears as I listened to the radio. I’m ashamed to say that doesn’t happen more often, given the frequency of gun violence in this country. The principal of the high school attended by the youngest person slain in the El Paso mass shooting broke down himself while delivering a eulogy for the boy at a memorial service held at the school. “Not one more child,” he said, his voice trembling, as he fought back his own tears.
It’s early August and the shooting in Dayton was the 250th mass shooting in the USA, just this year. Further these mass shootings, while they catch the attention of the national news, all too briefly, pale in comparison to the sheer numbers of people slain in gun violence where there are only one or two victims. This includes people slain in domestic violence within the home, by a family member.
Seven years ago, gun violence touched my life more closely than what’s on the news. An acquaintance of mine, an ex of my ex, was killed with a hand gun, as he got out of his car. We had known each other as 20 somethings and students in SF in the very early 80s. Peter had gone on to get his PhD and had become a researcher back east at the NIH. The gunman was never identified and the reason for his murder was never known for certain.
For a period of a couple of years after Peter died, I wore a green ribbon on my hospital ID, indicating I had been touched by gun violence. I wrote my representatives begging them to support common sense laws regarding gun ownership. Eventually, I stopped. I stopped doing something. Along the way, New Town happened. Virginia Tech. Mother Emmanuel Church. The Pulse Nightclub. Marjorie Stillman Douglas HS. The Tree of Life Synagogue. Riverside. Las Vegas. Now Gilroy, El Paso & Dayton.
There are a number of troubling themes here. Some political, where our current White House occupant seems to fan flames of discontent with incendiary rhetoric. That a disaffected young white man ultimately turns to a violent solution to his perceived loss of status or power hardly seems surprising. Others are similarly whipped to action by anti-Western sentiments, such as happened at Pulse and Riverside, but in reality these are much the minority in the US. The vast bulk of the domestic violence in this country is not jihadist, nor perpetrated by minority people. It’s by American born disaffected, generally young, Caucasian, male, and often struggling with mental health issues. The rhetoric of the right is flaming greater division, not on sites like 8chan and 4chan, but on Fox & Sinclair, demonizing and scapegoating people at the bottom of our social strata for systemic problems they have not caused. Latin émigrés to this country aren’t the cause for the loss of American jobs going overseas. American manufacturing has not disappeared because migrants are fleeing violence in Central America. If we look at much of the work undocumented workers are willing to take here, there are not long lines of Americans waiting to take these low paid, back breaking tasks. Meanwhile, firearm makers and their lobby, the NRA are capitalizing on the fears and disaffection of the public for their profit. Ads like “get your man card back”, touting the semi-automatic rifle, popular with many mass shooters, isn’t adding to our collective safety. How long have we heard the phrase “our thought and prayers” after a highly publicized shooting? How often have grieving family and friends heard the same after a not so publicized killing? Sadly, the subtext of “my thoughts and prayers” means I don’t know what else to say, let alone do,” when a private individual is trying to offer comfort. When it’s a public official, the true meaning is more, “I won’t lift a finger to change the situation. I have an election coming up.”
So why are we so unable to affect a change? In truth, it rests with us. We have to actually work for change. It means not just pushing every single office holder, local, state & federal, to support common sense gun legislation, but fighting lobbying of the NRA. It means actively working for campaign finance reform. The way to reclaim a government for and by the people, is to defang the various industry lobbies. Their ability to provide limitless funding for political candidates outsizes their political voice. It means recognizing that the US has become the best democracy money can buy.
Do something. It’s what protesters yelled at Ohio Gov. Dewine when he spoke after the Dayton shooting. He won’t. Not unless it’s politically expedient for him to do so. That’s only going to happen if all of Ohio pushes him AND their legislators to make the change we need to see.
So, what are you going to do?
It’s early August and the shooting in Dayton was the 250th mass shooting in the USA, just this year. Further these mass shootings, while they catch the attention of the national news, all too briefly, pale in comparison to the sheer numbers of people slain in gun violence where there are only one or two victims. This includes people slain in domestic violence within the home, by a family member.
Seven years ago, gun violence touched my life more closely than what’s on the news. An acquaintance of mine, an ex of my ex, was killed with a hand gun, as he got out of his car. We had known each other as 20 somethings and students in SF in the very early 80s. Peter had gone on to get his PhD and had become a researcher back east at the NIH. The gunman was never identified and the reason for his murder was never known for certain.
For a period of a couple of years after Peter died, I wore a green ribbon on my hospital ID, indicating I had been touched by gun violence. I wrote my representatives begging them to support common sense laws regarding gun ownership. Eventually, I stopped. I stopped doing something. Along the way, New Town happened. Virginia Tech. Mother Emmanuel Church. The Pulse Nightclub. Marjorie Stillman Douglas HS. The Tree of Life Synagogue. Riverside. Las Vegas. Now Gilroy, El Paso & Dayton.
There are a number of troubling themes here. Some political, where our current White House occupant seems to fan flames of discontent with incendiary rhetoric. That a disaffected young white man ultimately turns to a violent solution to his perceived loss of status or power hardly seems surprising. Others are similarly whipped to action by anti-Western sentiments, such as happened at Pulse and Riverside, but in reality these are much the minority in the US. The vast bulk of the domestic violence in this country is not jihadist, nor perpetrated by minority people. It’s by American born disaffected, generally young, Caucasian, male, and often struggling with mental health issues. The rhetoric of the right is flaming greater division, not on sites like 8chan and 4chan, but on Fox & Sinclair, demonizing and scapegoating people at the bottom of our social strata for systemic problems they have not caused. Latin émigrés to this country aren’t the cause for the loss of American jobs going overseas. American manufacturing has not disappeared because migrants are fleeing violence in Central America. If we look at much of the work undocumented workers are willing to take here, there are not long lines of Americans waiting to take these low paid, back breaking tasks. Meanwhile, firearm makers and their lobby, the NRA are capitalizing on the fears and disaffection of the public for their profit. Ads like “get your man card back”, touting the semi-automatic rifle, popular with many mass shooters, isn’t adding to our collective safety. How long have we heard the phrase “our thought and prayers” after a highly publicized shooting? How often have grieving family and friends heard the same after a not so publicized killing? Sadly, the subtext of “my thoughts and prayers” means I don’t know what else to say, let alone do,” when a private individual is trying to offer comfort. When it’s a public official, the true meaning is more, “I won’t lift a finger to change the situation. I have an election coming up.”
So why are we so unable to affect a change? In truth, it rests with us. We have to actually work for change. It means not just pushing every single office holder, local, state & federal, to support common sense gun legislation, but fighting lobbying of the NRA. It means actively working for campaign finance reform. The way to reclaim a government for and by the people, is to defang the various industry lobbies. Their ability to provide limitless funding for political candidates outsizes their political voice. It means recognizing that the US has become the best democracy money can buy.
Do something. It’s what protesters yelled at Ohio Gov. Dewine when he spoke after the Dayton shooting. He won’t. Not unless it’s politically expedient for him to do so. That’s only going to happen if all of Ohio pushes him AND their legislators to make the change we need to see.
So, what are you going to do?
no subject
Date: 2019-08-10 08:45 pm (UTC)