Truth and Meaning: Another Senseless Death

By now, it is no secret — I loathe guns. I have shot rifles and pistols at ranges and tried skeet shooting once. But I have never owned a gun and never will. If I feel a strong enough need, I will take a self-defense course, or buy a taser. And when I sense that our government is going astray, I engage our Constitutional right to free assembly and protest — which I have done on many occasions.

I have no grudge against hunters, especially those who handle their weapons properly. If you find it sporting or necessary to kill wildlife for food, feel free. I will argue that you don’t need an automatic rifle with a high capacity magazine, however, to take down your prey.

But, hardly a day goes by that a child doesn’t mishandle a gun in their home, often with fatal results. The accidental death at the hands of a 9-year old girl in Arizona this week should make this nation weep. We should mourn the loss of this child’s innocence, torn away from her forever. This could have been your daughter. We should grieve with the family of the dead instructor, whose loss can never be replaced. This could have been your husband, father or brother. And we should be furious that another careless and preventable action involving our insane gun culture should have been prevented.

And then, less than TWO DAYS after this tragic accident, the NRA promoted information on how “Children Can Have Fun at the Shooting Range.” This callous act is just one of a long list of such affronts to the welfare of our children and our nation. Every American should be outraged by the NRA, which is literally looking you straight in the eyes and telling you, “You don’t matter — only guns matter.” The NRA is spitting in your face while it uses your membership fees to curry favor with politicians that will result in the death and loss of innocence of more children.

I say ENOUGH! I understand defending the right to bear arms. We may differ on how the Second Amendment is interpreted, but that is not the point. The NRA has overwhelmingly proven that it is not the body that should be influencing that discussion supposedly on the behalf of gun owners. Yes, training in the use of guns is absolutely essential. But that training need not be done by a ruthless, uncaring lobbying group only concerned with keeping every American in harm’s way. Do you honestly believe that the Founders imagined, or would have ever considered, supporting people strapped with loaded automatic rifles walking the aisles of your local grocery store?

If you support responsible gun ownership, then quit the NRA. Start a new group that really promotes that laudable goal. Demand mandatory background checks on all gun purchases, including those at gun shows and online. And at least be willing to discuss the possibility that certain weapons should never, ever be put into the hands of a 9-year old.

 

Truth and Meaning: Who's Next?

When my daughter was in her early teens, she went trick or treating with a couple of friends. Our town had a strict 6 to 8 p.m. curfew on Halloween, which was signaled by a siren from the Borough’s Fire Department. At 8:20, a police car pulled into my driveway and two police officers escorted my daughter to the door. They respectfully told me that my daughter was on the street after the curfew and had broken the rule.

I thanked them and, after they left, listened to my daughter’s indignant rant about her treatment. She said that she and her friends were just walking back home and that the police had no right to treat them like criminals. I told her that she knew the rule, had broken it, and been caught. End of discussion.

Today, however, I cannot help but think about Michael Brown, Trayvon Martin and countless other young black men being murdered on our streets by the police and their agents. What if my white daughter had been a black boy wearing a mask, maybe carrying a plastic sword? Would she have been treated with the same respect? Would she have been handcuffed, arrested, even shot? Would the police have arrived to drive me down to the morgue? Maybe not, but I am no longer as certain as I used to be.

Racism is alive, well and thriving in America today. Anyone who refutes that statement is ignoring the facts and rationalizing our history of racial violence and oppression, and the ongoing impact of poverty and privilege in this country. Racism must not be ignored. And racism cannot be conquered by the feeble efforts of politicians and officials looking to find excuses to justify these preventable and horrific tragedies.

Racism must be looked at straight in the eye. We must confront racism at every corner and label it for what it is — ignorant, unjust and unacceptable. As Americans, we have a duty as citizens to seek equal justice for all. And White Americans have a special duty to imagine their world if their skin was brown. Why should any American be treated differently by anyone, especially the police, simply because of their skin color?

Would Michael Brown have been killed if he was White? Would George Zimmerman have been acquitted if Trayvon Martin had been white? We will never know. But how many more times must this happen before we know the answer to those questions? Who has to die next until we are all convinced that racism must be exterminated if America has any hope of being the paragon of freedom and justice it purports to be?

More on Our Immigration Hypocrisy

The current crisis of children refugees flooding into America raises several interesting moral questions for this nation. Unless you are a descendant of our Native Peoples, you were once an immigrant to this land yourself. Where would you be now if your ancestors faced the hate now associated with those trying to immigrate into the United States and the incredible cost and bureaucracy of becoming a citizen?

But let’s put together a couple of interesting facts. The Center for Reproductive Rights regularly updates the list of countries and their laws regarding abortion. As of 2013, 61 countries (39 percent of the world’s population) live in countries where abortion is allowed without restriction regarding the reason. However, while the United States is included in this group, we know that reproductive justice is under assault in every state, while funding for poor families, health insurance and education is being cut.

In another 13 countries (23 percent of the population) abortion is legal on socioeconomic grounds and to preserve the life of the mother. Another 59 countries (14 percent of the population) only allow abortion to preserve the mother’s life, sometimes including not just her physical but also her mental health.

That means in 66 countries (just over one-quarter of people in the world) abortion is prohibited completely, or only allowed in cases where the woman’s physical life is threatened.

The children fleeing into our nation for refuge come largely from El Salvador, Guatemala and Nicaragua. Do you care to guess which of the above groups all three of these countries fall into? In Guatemala, abortion is only permitted to preserve the life of the woman. In El Salvador and Nicaragua, there are no exceptions granted to permit a woman to choose an abortion. Not to save her life. Not because of rape or incest. None.

So, if you consider yourself “pro-life,” where do you stand regarding these children pleading for your help? You believe that their mothers had no right to prevent their birth. And now these children are running away from almost certain torture and murder, begging for sanctuary from a country that promotes its morality across the globe. If you call yourself “pro-life” and are protesting protecting these children, then you should seriously re-evaluate your principles.

And let’s not forget who put these children in danger in the first place. Since 1946, the School of the Americas (ironically renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation in 2001) located at Fort Benning, Ga., has trained over 64,000 Latin American soldiers in counterinsurgency techniques, sniper training, commando and psychological warfare, military intelligence and interrogation tactics.

These graduates have consistently used their skills to wage war against their own people. Among those targeted by SOA graduates are educators, union organizers, religious workers, student leaders and others who work for the rights of the poor. Hundreds of thousands of Latin Americans have been tortured, raped, assassinated, “disappeared,” massacred, and forced into becoming refugees by those trained by the SOA. In all, the School of the Americas has produced a combined 329 graduates from El Salvador, Guatemala and Nicaragua.

So, the America we live in is the world’s paragon of freedom, liberty and justice. Our America also sells arms throughout the world — sometimes to both sides in a conflict. Our America also invades countries illegally when we have an interest in the region’s resources, but leave “unimportant” people to fend for themselves. And even when we were directly complicit in creating the instability, our America balks at helping the victims of our long history of covert interference.

I love my country. But I do not love everything our country does. I do not support our blithe ignorance of the needs of brave veterans, many of whom suffer physical and mental damage from their combat experiences. I do not support our protracted, unfounded and irrational efforts to withhold rights and benefits from people based solely on their sexual orientation or gender identity. I do not support the increasing militarization of our police resulting in tragedies like the murder of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. And I especially do not support our worship of war, our arrogant and righteous attitude that our culture is inherently superior and our misguided priorities that treat corporations like people, and our people like expendable commodities.