Tears, Prayers & Action
I wanted to pass along two recent posts that readers of this blog have sent my way. Both concern reactions to the shootings this past Friday in Newtown, CT.
The first revolves around the gun policies in our country and is, in particular, a direct response to the fierce opposition of the National Rifle Association toward any gun safety laws. It is passionate and pulls no punches and, given that we have seen a near epidemic of shootings in recent months, it seems to me that the time is ripe, indeed, critical, to ask why it is so ridiculously easy for persons to obtain guns and ammunition. I’m as familiar as you are with the adage, “guns don’t kill, people do.” But as my twelve year-old said this morning, “It sure seems easier for them to kill when there’s lots of guns around.” The author of the editorial is Bill Nemitz, writing in The Portand (Maine) Press Herald.
The second piece points us to something that is often lost in post-shooting discussions of guns, and that’s the state of our mental health system and the lack of care for certain populations and lack of support for their families. I can’t adequately describe the power and clarity with which Liza Long writes about the ongoing challenge and tragedy of raising a wonderful, caring, and also at times terribly violent child who struggles with mental illness. I can only urge you to read it.
Finally, yesterday I heard an interview with Chris Murphy, who represents the U.S. Congressional district in which Newtown sits and is Connecticut’s Senator-elect. He said that he knows these all are important issues – and has himself been a sponsor of gun-safety legislation – but that for most of the folks in his district, right now they’re just trying to hang on – to each other, to hope, to the possibility of healing. I think we can all understand and respect that. We won’t solve these complex problems immediately, but we need to take them up soon. In the meantime, we can continue to share our tears with the people of Newtown, hold them in our prayers, and sometime soon and when they’re ready, join their calls for significant and meaningful action.
I found Tobias Buckell’s comparison of the inability of one of North Korea’s citizens to believe they were poor until presented with inarguable facts, and statistics about gun violence in the US vs the rest of the world thought provoking. I hope we wake up and figure out what we are doing wrong soon, because unless we address it, it seems like it’s only going to get worse.
Thank you for putting Bill Nemitz’s Portland Press Herald up so it can get more readers. Bill is one of the very few reasons for reading the paper as his often provocative pieces are most often Very Thoughtful and often even lyrical!