It is not lost on me that most people do not know what to do during times of brutality like Uvalde or Charleston or Buffalo. We see the carnage on the television or on our computers and we feel overwhelmed and stuck. We wring our hands and do not know what to do. We feel deep empathy of those who have lost their loved ones, or rather for those who have had the lives of their loved ones taken away in senseless acts of gun violence.
So, I think it is the natural human response to say, "Our thoughts and prayers are with them." Even today, at the end of a telehealth consult for my vision, my provider said something to the effect of praying for someone who had just gotten out of the hospital. I'm not opposed to praying at all. I am, in fact, a keen fan of praying. I pray a lot, and I think and study about praying a lot, and, in fact, the Jesus who prayed often and in various settings is someone that I am studying these days.
However, when I hear politicians offer their "thoughts and prayers," my immediate response is revulsion and my internal thoughts, you probably don't want to hear that internal dialogue or monlogue or whatever you want to call it. You and I both know that "thoughts and prayers" is a way of deflecting and postponing any meaningful discourse and/or change around things that matter to us.
I get it that it takes time for things to change. That is coming from me, a guy who has been advocating for justice for Black farmers since 1994. No one has to tell me how slowly the wheels of justice roll and how along the way, those wheels grind good people into the very ground that they are living upon.
But, then, on occasion there will come people like Senator Elizabeth Warren who offered her plan for justice for Black farmers, and then there are others like Senator Booker, Senator Warnock, or Senator Sanders, and Senator Stabenow, and others who offer up policies for change. Then, there are people like Secretary Thomas Vilsack who stands in the way of debt cancellation for Black farmers and it takes other activities of other entities in Washington to challenge him.
So, when politicians on the right offer up "thoughts and prayers," then I watch what they do and where they go and what they say. When they comment about those on the left being guilty of politicizing tragedy, and then they do the same thing, my emotions boil over. Then, look at where they go to speak. In fact, look at the names of those who are on the speaking agenda for the NRA this weekend in Houston. After the murders in Uvalde, this meeting being held is tone deaf.
No, they are not serious about creating change in America. Too many votes ride on it. To win in some elections, you have to be sold out to the NRA. The NRA would not be friendly to anyone who advocates for change on the American stage.
One the other hand, I was proud to see our President stand up in the White House, not too many hours after he had returned from his overseas trip, and grieve over America and its children. While he may not be the Consoler in Chief nor sing Amazing Grace at a memorial service like President Obama, still he is a good man who knows grief and tragedy personally.
Still, however, it is up to you and me to do something beyond wring our hands. We must vote. Vote for persons who see the gun crisis for what it is, a senseless crisis that kills our children and vulnerable adults. Vote for those people who see the issue as a growing public health crisis. Vote for them, and arm yourself with information about gun violence as a public health crisis. Vote for those people who will take your agenda to Washington or to the statehouse in whatever state you live.
If someone is serious about the gun crisis, they will suspend their loyalty to the NRA and to the heinous interpretation of the 2nd amendment and to all things guns. They will change policies about who can get what guns and how they can get them. No 18 year old needs two AR-15s. Deer do not wear kevlar on their bodies. If you can't kill a deer in one, maybe two shots, you need to do something else.
There has been a feverish debate over the origins of the 2nd amendment for eons. Here's one history of it. If you are willing to venture into new territory, I'd recommend Carolyn Anderson's work on the history of guns and the second amendment here.
Either way, America loves its guns. Despite the carnage over the last few decades, we still maintain that owning is our right, and owning how much and how many and for what reasons are our rights. We love them, and our individual freedoms too much, and at times this at the expense of the most vulnerable.
So, take your "thoughts and prayers" and put them into action. Vote for people who will carry your convictions that enough is enough, enough of our children and others have died, and, no, the NRA does not need to own our souls here in America.
Let our thoughts and prayers be mobilized for action. Expect public policy to take a long time to develop and for it to be shaped into laws. It will never happen as long as we sit and wait and offer up our thoughts and prayers.
And, on that note, this is a guy who has it right. He said it well. I can't improve it. He says it well here. Click on his picture of all of the Uvalde children and then read his words. Well worth it. Posted here with his permission.
Thoughts and prayers did not save the saints in Charleston, nor at the grocery store in Buffalo, nor the children at the schools in Uvalde or Sandy Hook, and they will not save us.
Pray, preach, write, march, and vote. Work for change. Put your feet into it. Put your heart into it. Put your soul into it. Put your words into it.
Do something.
Do something.
Just do something.
The persons you help to save may be those you love.
One gets weary of evil in this world. But let us remember that evil resides in the hearts of fallen souls, not mere machines such as the weapons used in several atrocities as Uvalde this week. My questions are: where were the parents? How did an 18 year-old obtain a weapon through the mail without an intermediary distributor to record, assess, and validate the sale, and how can a dealer possibly determine the mental status of the purchaser with HIPPA records guarding this vital information (the question on the transfer paperwork is easily lied about). So, why do weapons of all sorts exist? Most likely for the same reason that automobiles direct from dealerships can run twice the legal speed limit. It doesn't make a lot of sense, but comes under basic freedoms. But make NO mistake about it, an individual's freedom ends where the next person's begins. Perhaps, in the actions of a few, we must all lose yet another right. Do remember this one thing about “guns.” This AR platform (forever incorrectly described as an “assault weapon”) isn't the deadliest weapon in American hands today. Remember the lowly shotgun? A semi-automatic shotgun, with a 5-9 round capacity, a weapon which can be reloaded on the run (shoot a round, load a round), makes the devastation wrought by any other firearm an afterthought. God forbid anyone ever turns this beast loose in a crowded public forum. If guns are to be banned, it can't just be the one with the “cool factor.” It has to be all. Then one has to go after anything else that can kill on a scale.....projectile weapons to poisons. I weep for the children (many rendered unrecognizable), the teacher, and parents. God spread his grace among them. But don't you think the problem might be a social one? A sociopathic one? Something we can resolve by really rolling up our sleeves rather than pointing fingers at a piece of metal?
ReplyDeleteOne gets weary of evil in this world. But let us remember that evil resides in the hearts of fallen souls, not mere machines such as the weapons used in several atrocities as Uvalde this week. My questions are: where were the parents? How did an 18 year-old obtain a weapon through the mail without an intermediary distributor to record, assess, and validate the sale, and how can a dealer possibly determine the mental status of the purchaser with HIPPA records guarding this vital information (the question on the transfer paperwork is easily lied about). Why do weapons of all sorts exist? Most likely for the same reason that automobiles direct from dealerships can run twice the legal speed limit. It doesn't make a lot of sense, but comes under basic freedoms. But make NO mistake about it, an individual's freedom ends where the next person's begins. Perhaps, in the actions of a few, we must all lose yet another right. Do remember this one thing about “guns.” This AR platform (forever incorrectly described as an “assault weapon”) isn't the deadliest weapon in American hands today. Remember the lowly shotgun? A semi-automatic shotgun, with a 5-9 round capacity, a weapon which can be reloaded on the run (shoot a round, load a round), makes the devastation wrought by any other firearm an afterthought. God forbid anyone ever turns this beast loose in a crowded public forum. If guns are to be banned, it can't just be the one with the “cool factor.” It has to be all. Then one has to go after anything else that can kill on a scale.....projectile weapons to poisons. I weep for the children (many rendered unrecognizable), the teacher, and parents. God spread his grace among them. But don't you think the problem might be a social one? A sociopathic one? Something we can resolve by really rolling up our sleeves rather than pointing fingers at a piece of metal?
ReplyDeleteThanks, Dave, for weighing in. We live in troubled times. Much to weep about when it comes to our children. It is a complicated issue, but most want to lay the blame at mental health and there are plenty of studies out there that say that that's a part, but not the whole. As long as the NRA owns our politicians, nothing will change.
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