Friday, August 9, 2019

Terrible things are happening outside.


John Deering

Deep breath.

There is a lot to unpack from the last two weeks. Our country, having reaching the tipping point, is skidding down the dark side.

We possess a complex set of problems with a long history and no easy answers. There are some simple answers but they aren't easy. I'll get to that.

In the span of one week, we had three mass shootings in our country: Gilroy, California; El Paso, Texas; and Dayton, Ohio.

Mass shootings are sadly not new, nor are they few. It depends on how you define "mass shooting," but if you count five or more deaths, there have been 88 mass shootings in the U.S. in the 20 years since Columbine. If you broaden the definition to include four or more injuries, there have been 248 mass shootings in 2019 alone. As the Washington Post has found, mass shootings are becoming more common and more deadly.

A mass shooting, sadly, is not an unexpected occurrence. Maybe because they are not unexpected, each one punches us in the gut. Soon, each of us will have been affected by this type of gun violence. Have you been touched? I have. There have been two mass shootings in my community. I have police officer friends who were first responders to our shooting a few years ago in Isla Vista. I have a friend who survived Las Vegas. She was not injured physically, but she suffers PTSD which has affected every aspect of her life.


Our recent mass shootings were not unexpected, nor surprising. There will be another one before too long, probably within a few weeks. I hesitate to call one of these three recent shootings worse than the others, for families in all communities are missing their children, their mothers, their fathers, aunts, uncles, wives, husbands, friends, cousins, neighbors.... Survivors have a new hell of a reality to face. Each community hurts deeply for a long time.

The crime in El Paso, though, marks a black day for us, for the crime was committed at the bidding of the White Supremacist President* for reasons of hate. It was committed with a weapon of war. It was heinous. And we are sick and tired of saying:




Our not-new problem, which is now staring us in the face, emanating from the most powerful man in the world: white supremacy. 

Violence from white supremacy is not new, of course. We've mourned and condemned other mass shootings that have had white power as a motive. Now, it has been escalated. Now, the most powerful racist on Earth has been implicated. 

I've outlined here multiple times this man's racism. On election day 2016, I worried most for our friends and neighbors of color. Now, indeed, they are being murdered at the behest of this orange menace. 

His rally speeches and his mouthpieces at FAUX News were reflected in the El Paso shooter's manifesto, as illustrated below. And here is a video by the Daily Show illustrating the same thing. Today, it was reported that the shooter admitted to investigators that his goal was to kill Mexicans. 

from @bfriedmandc


Weeks before this incident, 45 had laughed at the suggestion from a supporter who shouted "shoot them" as a solution to his problem of "stopping these people" from entering the United States. He constantly devalues immigrants entering from the Southern border as invaders, infestation, rapists, murderers, animals. His dangerous rhetoric is not simply rhetoric. It's reality.

It doesn't stop at rhetoric. Besides the ugliness at the borders, with babies taken from their mothers and put in cages, with families in squalid conditions, many U.S. citizens have been held in immigration detention facilities, targeted and held solely based on the color of their skin. A Dallas-born teenager was held for nearly a month, despite showing proper "papers" documenting his U.S. citizenship. He's not the only United States citizen who has been held in custody by ICE. There have been other brown-skinned people held. Even U.S.-born children have been detained. 

Jimmy Aldaoud, a man born in Greece who had lived in the United States all his life, was targeted and deported to Iraq, a place he had never lived, where he didn't know the culture or the language, where he didn't have family. He died on the streets because he lacked access to insulin.

Add to these atrocities the frightening threats of ICE raids in cities across the country, and actual raids. This week nearly 700 people were arrested by ICE in Mississippi at their jobs in a poultry packing plant. Their arrest on the first day of school left dozens of children stranded after school with no one to pick them up, terrified and crying. We're at it again. Separating children from their parents.

"I need my dad"


The sum of this, my friends, is the very picture of a dark state-sponsored terrorist campaign. Like Hitler and Charles Manson, TRUMP is using stochastic terrorism to incite his followers, as well as official law enforcement departments, to cruelly demonize and terrorize people of color.

In 1943, Anne Frank wrote, “Terrible things are happening outside. At any time of night and day, poor helpless people are being dragged out of their homes. They're only allowed to take a knapsack and a little cash with them, and even then, they're robbed of these possessions on the way. Families are torn apart; men, women and children are separated.”

Have we forgotten?


After the shootings in El Paso and Dayton, 13 hours apart, 45 read a speech that, on paper, sounds pretty presidential. His delivery was characteristically flat and stilted as it always is when he has to read something to sound presidential. His mouth was dry and he looked like a robot. He sniffed his sniffs. He mistakenly placed one of the shootings in Toledo, a different Ohio city. The fact that the error was on the teleprompter illustrates how very little the whole administration cares. No one caught the mistake. 

Here is the automaton:





It wasn't long before the real SCROTUS showed up. At a hospital visit (where, incidentally, almost all of the hospitalized survivors declined to meet him), he joked and bragged about his crowd size, and gave a smiley thumb's up in a photo op with an orphaned baby whose parents were shot and killed. Sickening. Shameful.

Photo tweeted by Melania Trump

And while he was on his official visit to affected communities, he couldn't resist a racist political jab, tweeting about Beto O'Rourke, "Beto (phony name to indicate Hispanic heritage) O’Rourke, who is embarrassed by my last visit to the Great State of Texas, where I trounced him, and is now even more embarrassed polling at 1% in the Democratic Primary, should respect the victims & law enforcement — & be quiet!" Behavior true to his despicable character. 

His white nationalist rhetoric will no doubt be front and center at his next rally. 


The larger problem of gun violence (and it's not just mass shootings that devastate us; gun violence happens to individuals on a daily basis in every county of every state) lays at the feet of the NRA and the spineless, soulless ones who have been purchased by them. Not the least of whom is Senator Turtle from Kentucky, who was purchased for $1.4 million. Wayne LaPierre, head of the NRA, phoned 45 almost immediately after the El Paso and Dayton shootings, stressing that he must not advance any gun regulatory legislation. The U.S. House of Representatives recently passed a background check bill. McConnell has let it sit in the Senate. Though there have been calls from Senators for McConnell to reconvene the Senate during their break and pass this bill, he has not. I'm betting he'll keep letting it sit, and emotions will have quieted down before Congress reconvenes next month, letting him do the NRA's bidding and resist bringing the bill to a vote. 

But make no mistake: McConnell and TЯUMP are opposing Americans' will. A recent Quinnipiac poll showed that 94% of Americans support background checks for gun buyers. Ninety-four percent! Gun owners themselves – 90% of them – support background checks. 

If you believe the NRA is funded solely by "law-abiding gun owners," you are mistaken. There has been Russian money flowing into the NRA as part of Russia's attempts to interfere in our election. The organization is trying hard to back-peddle away, but investigations are underway to unravel it. 

And if you believe the NRA has a pure Second Amendment rationale for their stance, again, you are sadly mistaken. You don't think their opposition to gun regulation is a race issue? You're wrong. The NRA are advocates for gun rights for white people. In the 60s, the NRA supported gun control when the Black Panthers were armed. Indeed, white supremacy has always been in the fabric of America's gun culture.


The United States gun problem is not easy to define, but Professor Eddie Glaude of Princeton had these amazing words in an attempt. Please listen.




Consequences? They are far and wide. 
  • Of course, gun violence destroys families of victims as well as damages survivors and their families, along with the members of each affected community and the country as a whole. 
  • There are other consequences, too, such as travel warnings from Uruguay, Venezuela, and Japan, who warn their citizens from visiting the United States due to rampant gun violence. Our national reputation continues to be besmirched.
  • The consequences to the Presidency: Peril. Community leaders in El Paso and Dayton told the President* to stay away. Right-leaning publications, like The Bulwark, are musing that perhaps indeed his days are numbered. He's looking "small and and isolated" according to Richard Parker in the New York Times. Republicans are also looking impotent in their silence or weak video game arguments.
  • Children growing up with gun violence experience emotional and psychological trauma that lasts throughout their lives.
  • Name your consequence here.



Solutions? We need them yesterday.


The Onion publishes this headline every time a mass shooting occurs: "No Way to Prevent This," Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens


I want my readers to know that I, as most Americans, do not advocate for the outright "banning" of guns. There are indeed legitimate reasons for owning a firearm. Hunting, self-protection, hobby. That's fine. But there's no doubt. When we are talking about a firearm, we're talking about an item that can and does kill very easily and is very easy to obtain. It's main purpose is for killing. Period. Doesn't that alone warrant some oversight?

We need strict regulations and licensing for "regular" firearms, and we must disallow civilian ownership of weapons of war. 

I cannot buy a hand grenade or a rocket launcher. I can't drive a tank to Trader Joe's. But I can go out and acquire an automatic assault rifle capable of firing 600 rounds a minute. There is no legitimate reason to own a weapon of war, designed for the killing and wounding of as many human beings as possible in as short a time as possible. If there is a legitimate reason, then let us buy hand grenades and mines, for there is no difference in the purpose for these weapons.

Gun advocates' favorite comparison is the automobile. "Cars are more dangerous! Automobile accidents kill xx number of Americans every day!" they cry. Well, ok. Let's take that comparison. Yes, vehicle accidents do kill and maim daily. And the number of deaths and injuries is mitigated by a myriad number of laws. You must be trained; you must be licensed; your vehicle must be registered in the state and maintained in safe operating condition; driver and passengers must wear safety belts; you must not operate a vehicle while under the influence of substances; you must be tested periodically; you must obey volumes of laws in order to operate this machine in public; you must maintain insurance coverage. Seriously, DUH! Regulations save lives! 

Boston has implemented a ground-breaking set of solutions for gun violence. Could they be a model for the rest of us?

Australia had one mass shooting in 1996, killing 35. Extensive gun regulations were immediately implemented, yet gun ownership in Australia is still robust. Rates of gun violence, including suicide, have drastically decreased there. There has been one mass shooting since then. Could Australia's system be implemented here?

Canada has a large gun-owning population. What Canada has: licensing, registration, safety requirements, restrictions, and background checks. Canada also has mentally ill citizens and plenty of people who play video games. What Canada does not have: mass shootings. Shall we develop a task force to study their system and work to develop something similar here?


Misinformed and misinforming leaders like to blame mental illness and video games each time there is a mass shooting. It's simply not the case; there are no strong connections between the individuals who commit these crimes and either of those convenient scapegoat reasons. Mental illness already has a dangerous stigma attached, and blaming mental illness is not helpful and furthers the stigma.. Folks with mental illness are more likely to be a victim of violence than perpetrate violence. And in truth, mass shootings create more need for mental health care for the individuals who are impacted by violence, mental health care which is sorely deficient in our country. I won't give it another word because these issues are red herrings.

What does impact the our nation of guns: The brainwashing from the NRA that somehow our rights as citizens will be severely impaired if we license, train, and manage firearm acquisition in our gun-loving country. But what about our inalienable right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness? What about those rights? Today, I'm sitting here with my heart in my throat, and for me and millions of my countryfolk, those rights have been eroded. We must demand restoration of these inalienable rights!


Other factors that may influence gun violence: our culture of misogyny, xenophobia, white supremacy. Domestic violence. Isolation. Poverty. Unfortunately, however, we don't know a lot about how these issues impact gun violence. We don't know a lot about social impacts on gun violence in the United States, because since 1996's NRA-driven Dickey Amendment, research of gun violence by the CDC has been banned. We simply don't understand all the factors. 


What can be done, simply (but not always easily): 

  • Get money out of politics. Neuter the NRA. Then, pass firearm legislation based on its merits, not based on pleasing a powerful, wealthy lobby. We can then also resume research which will lead us to more solutions. 
  • Take away weapons of war from the hands of civilians.
  • Confront our white supremacist past and correct it. 
  • Impeach the 45th President of the United States and remove him from office.
  • Hold the Republicans accountable. VOTE BLUE. 
  • Vote in a President that shares our values as Americans and as human beings. One that may write something like this:





Posted by at
Labels: , , , , ,

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)