This was my second blog post. I am now on my 51st posting.This posting was 1 year ago. Apparently there have been so many mass killings since then that we have become numb to it; that is until Las Vegas.The question is simply this: will I be writing this again one year from today? This thought has been circling my mind for some time now. It needed a place to land. Bob
So One Year Ago:
So I passed the fire station today. There it was, by order of the President, the American flag at half mast, again. So I looked it up. First, you all should know that just this year alone, the flag has been lowered in February, twice in March and May, in June, and three times in July. I think you all know what the causes were. Here is the saddest thing: the fire station should have raised it up on July 22nd when the President's order ended...at sunset. But, alas, the times being what they are, caused the nation's heroic fire fighters to merely keep it at half mast.
It's become, as the media likes to call it, 'the new normal.' Ubiquitous.
It's about guns; it's about anger; it's about religion; it's about poverty; it's about race; it's about mental health; it's about people who simple don't value their lives or the lives of others. The military style guns just magnify it. The media makes it 'newsworthy' (and it is, I know). Religions justify it as a jihad. Desperation and ridicule underline the causes for why men ( almost exclusively) literally jump off a cliff taking innocent bystanders and police with them. Fear and paranoia make some law enforcement officers shoot first and ask themselves the questions later.
It's not Vietnam, Operation Desert Storm or Desert Shield or any other declared war we have been fighting for the longest in history. No. This battleground is much closer to home. It's in our own streets and our schools. It may have begun on 9.11 but we, as a nation, cannot say we are close to 'mission accomplished.'
The shadow of money, power and ignorance makes it difficult to see. We all need to enlighten ourselves, to the issues, to the root causes and to each other. "For Light is what the Darkness most fears..."I heard the singer Jewel remind me.
Only then will we see the flag raised, again.
But today I read what Greg DeLuca wrote on a Social Media group called SMART that dedicates itself to meeting in the middle, drawing a sensible consensus, and above all doing so in a dignified manner. His essay is brilliant but long--so let's cut to its chase: the solution:
"We
can't control everyone's mental health, nor restrict all firearms. That doesn't
mean doing nothing is acceptable. An easy starting point like background checks
would not place an undue burden on second amendment freedoms and could prevent
many, of course not all, dangerous people from acquiring weapons they otherwise
shouldn't have. Restrictions on the type weapons people could own would not
prevent them from hunting or defending themselves, it simply wouldn’t allow
them to own a weapon whose sole practical purpose is inflicting mass
casualties. There is no legal scenario where this is necessary, and we are
compiling too many examples of how permitting such weapons leads to horrific
outcomes."
Bob Pacilio from the Metaphor Cafe...and the Senate floor...empty
I have been thinking about your post for a while. I'm usually very apolitical, but I commented on this same symbolism via Twitter (https://twitter.com/kevin_murakami/status/743630114324373504) on June 16, 2016. In that tweet I asked, "How can the U.S. ever be 'great' as long as the flag continues to fly at half-mast regularly?" Ironically, that same day USA Today published that President Obama has "ordered flags at half-staff more than any president in history" (http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2016/06/15/obama-flags-at-half-staff-proclamations/85891870/).
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that it is a complex problem with many variables. Another factor/aspect that has been "circling my mind" is hypocrisy. As a nation, we claim to abhor gun violence, yet we are ready to accept it as ubiquitous and do nothing substantial to change. We have a presidential candidate who is flaunting his desire to completely ignore the First Amendment with regards to religion, but, like so many of this candidates's supporters, will fight tooth-and-nail to follow the Second Amendment to its letter by conveniently ignoring our forefathers' justification for its inclusion despite the fact that we spend more money on our "militia," be it police or armed forces, than any other country in the world (by far!). We declare to have a strong democracy, which we conveniently tout internationally, yet we have no room for moderation, for compromise, and are as politically polarized as I have ever witnessed in my lifetime. This whole country is founded upon the separation of church and state, but then God is in the Pledge of Allegiance, God is on money, and God is even in the Little League pledge.
Look, we can't have it both ways. If we want a strong, true democracy, we have to consider everybody. If we want to protect the Second Amendment, we have to live by the First. If we want a strong government, we have to leave our religion's "book" at home. More than ever before we have to embrace that the world is much bigger than we might think. We are but one cog in an increasingly complex network/ecosystem of constantly evolving parts, and, as much as I hate to tell you, with the rise of China and India, we are no longer the biggest, most important, cog in that system. Lastly, loving America doesn't mean you have to hate all other countries. E Pluribus Unum, folks, E Pluribus Unum.
Kevin
DeleteWell, hello again. btw you family looks great!As for your reply--I am totally with you. I try to not be political bc I just don't think preaching to the choir is too helpful and I don't think changing people's minds works well in an impersonal posting. However, your points on guns and compromise as so spot on. I think one of the biggest errors of the Bush W's administration and the congress was allowing the assault weapons ban to be phased out. That is just crazy. As for religion, the number of wars fought in God's name is as old as ...as The Bible. We are supposed to be a melting pot of cultures; the only originals were the Native Indian tribes (and in California some Mexican tribes. We are the only nation on the planet that is a quilt of ideas, religions, foods, origins--We are the Greatest Experiment on Earth. And as such we have responsibilities of a superpower. Ignorance is not bliss, and that is the game plan that one candidate is pushing and with it the fear factor. That makes us very small, indeed. We have to rise up.
My nest Blog post you will find interesting: its title: Superman and Global Warming. I hope my people read your reply to me...I still am new to this Blog thing--I have 750 page views but 0 followers. Bob