The shootings in Buffalo and Uvalde have a uniquely horrific aspect. The victims were the most vulnerable among us, the elderly, and children under 12. They were all in our vulnerable locations, places where we all feel safest. The grocery store and the elementary school. Our most unguarded places are denied to us, or so the groups who spawned the shooters would like us to believe.
Such a denial of freedom has been seen in other countries, where dictators rule, stuff ballot boxes, and stuff the streets with armed soldiers. In those places people are afraid to smile, speak to one another, top greet each other with honest joy. Because dictators and anarchists hate joy.
This is what seems to happen in far-flung countries, thousands of miles from the United States. But as climate change overwhelms our country, so does a pestilence of greed and militaristic force against our most vulnerable. Greed has been with us a long time, it is a staple of our American Dream, to be billionaires, to have the most of something, knowledge, homes, cars, influence, and experiences. Such dreams lack depth, they are flimsy, paper-thin, and they are missing something, like the billionaires who live that dream are always searching for more and more.
Out of this comes a group, aggrieved of things, of wanting more, and being told they deserve it. They hate, they discipline and march in their minds. They are armchair warriors and meddling mercenaries, loaded with guns and ammunition. Unfortunately, the people sitting next to you are probably aggrieved, and your neighbors probably own guns. But that doesn’t mean they have the right to let children die, so they can keep the right to bear as many arms and weapons of war as they want.
The fact is, we have the right to limit the weapons that are available for public purchase in our country. We get to decide that, not the elected officials. You see elected officials are only there because they were voted into their office. That is a temporary position. There are laws governing what an elected official can and can’t do. The elected officials around the ones that are acting criminally don’t want to enforce those regulations, for fear political favor will turn against them.
A sitting supreme court justice can be investigated. A senator can have an ethics review. The filibuster can be gotten around. The republicans use these maneuvers all the time. Taking back our schools, grocery stores, events, and public spaces, is vital to the function of society.
Let’s start by saying “we will” instead of we can, or we have to, or we need to. These are statements of maybe. Maybe we can get gun control, maybe we can avoid civil war. Maybe we can stop Roe V Wade from being overturned. Maybe we can stop our elderly and young children from being torn apart by AR15 rounds.
Sounds like we are doing nothing because that’s what a maybe is, nothing. It’s sound in the air, nothing.
We will have gun control, the elected officials will do what I tell them to do, the children will stop dying, and the elderly and disabled will be allowed to shop, wherever they please. It’s long past the time we were a We Will society, instead of we better listen to both sides, or maybe we won’t have the opportunity to have the most of something. I don’t need the most, I have abundance. I will be adding resources to the hard copy edition of Earth Sygns. I will be organizing, and I will make change. Are you with me?
