There's
a cloud because of the school shooting out east. Maybe finally, people
on the political right will allow us to begin discussing gun control at a
certain level. So often those people shout us down, saying "we
shouldn't politicize this tragedy," or "how can you talk about this
before the funerals have even been held?"
Politicize? That's when you do something for selfish motives. You
or someone close to you is trying to get elected. Discussing moves
toward greater public safety should always be accepted.
No
one should cower in fear of the NRA. But politicians do. When Jeb Bush
signed the "stand your ground" law in Florida, a representative of the
NRA was in the group standing behind him. Maybe a mega tragedy like the
one out east will change the winds of discourse.
Bush said "stand your ground" simply reflected "common sense."
Politicians need to think deeper about all the ramifications of what
they're signing.
Gun control, or rather reasonable
limitations on firearms, might have to grow as a movement like "Occupy" -
in other words, outside the usual political channels. Our political
leaders in Washington are way too beholden to the NRA. The NRA seemed
like a reasonable organization when I was a kid. Today it's a true
extension of the political right. Like all organizations with political
influence, I suppose money becomes their tool for getting heard.
Ron Christie got agitated on a cable news panel after the Aurora CO
shooting. He got agitated because he felt a fellow panelist who wanted
to weigh gun control had interrupted him. You would think this was a
50/50 debate in which anti-gun control had to be given equivalent
respect. Christie is a sharp-edged righty who appears on MSNBC
occasionally to battle the progressives. He has been an associate of
Dick Cheney.
The recent election demonstrated that America may not be
"center-right" as has been suggested often. The Founders gave plenty of
room for both sides of the political spectrum to assert themselves at
times. We're not frozen on the political right despite what the mid-term
election of 2010 suggested.
The political right shows more muscle now than when I was a kid.
Let's re-phrase that: They're capable of making more noise. That's
because they're so good at seizing the electronic media. When I was a
kid, the more extreme voices were marginalized better.
The Aurora CO event wasn't enough to silence or mollify the
political right. They put on their usual boxing gloves. They re-visited
the altar of the Second Amendment.
Tea party candidate
Sharron Angle talked in 2010 about "Second Amendment solutions" to
political obstacles. When I was a kid, people like that wrote columns
for little flyers that ended up underfoot on the street. Today they have
Fox News.
Connecticut seems to be different. The tragedy there hasn't caused
the rabid Second Amendment advocates to rise in a unified chorus. They
aren't going on cable news shows to shout down or vilify those who
disagree. Maybe Connecticut was "one too many" of such incidents (as if
previous ones didn't sound a clarion call).
Or, most likely, it's because the victims are kids.
What
are all the ramifications? I suspect that one, which hasn't been
discussed much yet, is an increased swing toward home schooling.
I have always had mixed thoughts about home schooling. It seems to favor
the more affluent among us. It's not an option for a lot of people. I
like home schooling because it protects kids from bullying and such.
Kids might be able to learn more at their own pace. Kids who are slow in
maturing can get some insulation from the kind of hardships they'd
experience in school.
I fear the Second Amendment crowd might try to push attention
toward mental health now. We must resist an unreasonable stigma placed
on people with mental health issues, who of course are a surprising
percentage.
Much has been done toward school security. I remember the surprise I
felt the first time I saw that the principal had to wear an ID tag
around his neck in the school hallway. I remember being surprised the
first time I discovered the west doors locked at St. Mary's School in
Morris. They decided only the east doors would be open, I suppose to
make it easier to monitor all those entering and exiting. Still, there
was nobody directly watching.
One of the arguments for building the new school in Morris was that
the old one had too many entrances. A public letter was shared about
that. That poor old school. It went from being a perfectly acceptable
school to a disgrace and embarrassment in just a couple of decades. And
it hasn't even been torn down yet. If those walls could talk.
I wonder if St. Mary's was afraid of sexual predators. It turned
out one of their biggest issues in this regard was with one of their own
pastors. That's how these things go.
When I was a kid, we
were taught to be wary of "strangers" who fit a stereotype: a
shady-looking man in a trench coat offering you candy.
The biggest threats are often within an institution from people
capable of looking very respectable. That in fact is part of the tactics
to get access. The Hancock school had a horrible experience with a
predatory sort of individual who had to be sent to prison. That
individual was a high-achieving coach. He could've been nabbed earlier,
many people feel. Why wasn't he? A prominent main street person in
Morris told me once: "He won."
So, the Second Amendment isn't the only "altar" I'll cite in this post. "Winning" in sports is the other.
Can we put the cloud of the Connecticut tragedy behind us to embrace Christmas? I suspect we won't.
Our family has completely stopped the material side of marking
Christmas. The only way we mark it now is by going to church. We have
too much "stuff" in our house now - we've lived here 50-plus years - and
don't need any more (from gifts). Oh, maybe a box of chocolates would
be OK.
We dine at the public Christmas dinner at our church, First Lutheran.
We
just had the second straight Thanksgiving with no community dinner. In
fact, no restaurant in Morris that I know of, was even open. This is an
issue for the Morris community. We want to be hospitable. Not everyone
has the benefit of getting together with family on a holiday. We don't
want some senior citizens to be stuck throwing together a sandwich to
get through Thanksgiving. I have contacted an activist with our Chamber
of Commerce about this.
Christmas may have a cloud over it this year. But the birth of Christ has always been shown to transcend.
Happy holidays and Merry Christmas for 2012!
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota -bwilly73@yahoo.com
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