In Memoriam (Click Through)
Friends,
We celebrated Memorial Day in the United States this past weekend. The total difference between our Veteran's Day, which happens in November, and Memorial Day, the long weekend in May known as the unofficial start of summer, is that Memorial Day honors the fallen in military service to the US. Those who died in conflicts and wars.
And we have so many fallen. This past week I have been consumed thinking about the war we are waging on ourselves. 40,000 gun deaths annually.
Last week we lost 21 innocent lives in yet another senseless act of violence.
A small town was devastated, a country in mourning and lobbyists and politicians positioning themselves and digging in their heels on their side of the gun control issue.
To add insult to injury, the NRA, set to have their first convention since COVID 19 began, was in Houston, just 278 miles from Uvalde, the same week as the massacre.
They went ahead with it as planned.
After all, in 1999, after the Columbine school shooting, the harbinger that killed 13 people, the NRA was set to have their convention in Denver, CO.
11 days later, and 11 miles from the massacre, they also went ahead with it as planned.
Their justification and political stance are that guns aren't the problem; mental illness is.
In as much as I abhor the NRA and the tyrannical minority grip that they have on politicians, they are half right about the issue of mental illness. But let's call it mental imbalance.
Isolation, alienation, and loneliness are endemic throughout the US, and they have worsened over the pandemic.
While much in the spotlight, especially since COVID 19, mental health issues are still largely stigmatized and undiagnosed. Moreover, there are huge discrepancies as to who can access resources.
Exacerbating our country's collective trauma, the very nature of truth has become subjective. Our "leaders" no longer maintain any sense of decorum. They do not engage in constructive and respectful discourse. The political air, water, and soil have become toxic. I assert that this social context and divisiveness create the breeding grounds for our disenfranchised youth.
Every news report expertly outlines that "standard police protocol when dealing with an active shooter is to go in immediately, without hesitation, to try and incapacitate or kill the shooter." The essential important thing is to stop the shooting from happening. You then prevent people from dying by tending to the wounded.
Why can't US policymakers follow the same practice by "immediately, without hesitation," passing common-sense gun control laws? Laws that raise the legal age to buy guns, limit assault weapons, and mandate more vigorous background checks? Reasonable restrictions could have prevented much of the senseless carnage that has become too common here.
If we 1. Stop the shooters; we can begin to 2. Tend our wounded.
In the face of incomprehensible terror and loss, can we not come together to heal as a collective?
Think about it. In the US, suicide is the 10th leading cause of death - more than 2,000 14-18-year-olds die every year. Of the over 40,000 annual gun deaths in the US, 30,000 are suicides.
New CDC data reveals that almost one in five teens in this country has seriously considered attempting suicide. Restrict access to guns, and the likelihood of a fatal attempt decreases.
So whether you harm yourself or others, the root causes are still the same: unmet needs, childhood trauma, and severe loneliness. These lead to wounding and division within the individual, just like in our country.
88% of citizens favor gun control laws. It is a tyranny of the minority that we can not get legislation passed. The same is true for pro choice.
I wonder if the NRA and the tyrannical GOP senate minority have thought about all the children we will be raising in this next generation should 50% of the US pass the anti-abortion laws.
What kind of wounded children will grow up in families when they are unplanned, unwanted, neglected, and unloved? Will those future 18-year-olds also be allowed to buy assault weapons and 1600 rounds of ammunition?
God Help Us.