You know what I hear a lot these days? I hear “The world is
not going to shit, we are just finding out quicker about the shitty stuff that
happens”. I fail to see how this serves as solace to anyone who wakes up every
morning to find one more unavoidable tale of horror in our midst.
I say unavoidable because, even if you don’t read the news,
the facts are there, staring you in the face and impossible to escape from.
Even if you don’t click on CNN or Fox News, the BBC or Al Jazeera your friends
are talking about it, and you see “pray for…” on Instagram posts, or your
friends abroad are tagging themselves safe after a terrorist attack you rather
not know about.
There is so much pain and fear brewing in my heart, it has
kept me mute this past few months. It’s like those scenes in movies and books
when something happens and you wonder why the person doesn’t scream or runs
away, but instead just sits there, eyes wide open, frozen in a spot. That’s how
I’ve been and felt this past year.
From the attempted repeal of the ACA, the failed ‘Muslim
Ban’, the desertion of the US from the Kyoto Treaty, the military ban of LGTBQ,
the plan to cancel DACA, the horrors of Charlottesville and the administration’s
inability to condemn Neo Nazis and the KKK, the sad response to come to aid of
Puerto Rico and the USVI after Hurricane Maria, to the disastrous response of
the administration in the face of the Vegas Massacre and the scary unwavering
fervor of and the 2nd Amendment defenders who refuse to see a path
for gun control, it has all served to drown me in a sense of hopelessness I can’t
seem to shake.
What to tackle first?
Let’s start with Vegas, since it’s the most recent
occurrence.
As a liberal and a pacifist who wouldn’t shoot a gun to
hunt deer let alone to kill a person, I find the staunch defense of the 2nd
Amendment extremely weird. As a former law student, however, I can see the side
of two points even if I don’t agree with one of them. As a logical to a fault
individual I fail to see how SOME control over weapons gets in the way of that
freedom that gun lovers so adamantly defend.
Why is it necessary for an individual to have unlimited access
to assault weapons? If what you do is hunt, why do you need an AK-47? Shouldn’t
that type of weapon be used by military only?
Why is it that a person can walk into a store and walk out
with a tool for murder? You have a 48-hour cooling period for marriage in some
places after applying for a license but you can walk in and buy a weapon as if
it was a loaf of bread. In some states they regulate the purchase of Sudafed or
Nyquil more than they do guns!
What is wrong with requiring gun owners to pass a background
check, a mental health check-up, to have licenses and insurances? Why is there
more paperwork involved in buying a car than a weapon?
I don’t believe anything is going to change and that is the
saddest part. I have lost faith in the ability of people to learn and change. I
mean 27 children were murdered in a school in Connecticut and still the answer
was more weapons.
I don’t think children are precious and even I was thinking
that would be the turning point, children are the future and all that, if we
don’t protect them who will?
And nothing! It’s not going to stop. This obsession with
the right to bear arms, the love of that gun is stronger than logic.
I see the way our country is headed and because I love it I
want to change it, but suddenly we live in a place where dissent is unpatriotic
and disagreeing with policy is un-American. Yelling ‘blood and soil’ and
throwing Nazi salutes is fine but taking a knee in protest is a disrespect to
the flag… but worshiping a flag that was the representation of confederate plans
for secession is loving the other flag. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
There is room for improvement
when it comes to gun policy in this country. Denying it, calling people who
want it to happen ‘libtards’ or ‘bleeding hearts’ or whatever you call them is infantile
and gets us nowhere. There is endless amount of data of developed countries
that transitioned away from gun ownership and countless lives saved by the
banning of all guns. Since guns are
apparently more important than anything else, children, husbands, wives,
friends and family, then at least let’s start with some control over the ones
that can take out an entire concert full of people, let’s take away the ones
that can end 59 innocent lives, let’s stop making it in the news with another ‘the
biggest gun massacre to date’ because all I see is the numbers getting higher
and nothing getting done.
I don’t know about you, but if
I were a 2nd amendment advocate I would taking a serious look inward,
I would spend some time looking at the faces of the victims and reading their
stories, I would take a moment to think about the children of those three
single mothers who are orphans now.
I can’t understand, can’t
grasp how anyone can look at those pictures and not feel regret and guilt, even
if we didn’t pull the trigger.
I dare everyone to read those
mini bios, the summary of an entire life full of laughter, tears, work, friends,
Christmas and birthday parties where there was too much drinking, embarrassing
stories and teasing day-afters, kisses and sex, falling in and out of love,
fights and unhappy moments, everything and more all that, put into a paragraph
for the rest of us to get a glimpse of this life that was snuffed. A little
tidbit to get to know that person, make them real, make them human, make them
more than just a name on a paper. Make us see that they were someone’s one and
only, someone’s mother someone’s brunch mate, someone’s rock, someone’s sister
and friend and they are no longer here and left a fucking gaping hole in
someone’s life. If it doesn’t make you
feel anything, then you are part of the problem.
It shouldn’t have to be
someone we know for us to want to do something about it.
1 comment:
Nice Article
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