Six minutes and twenty-four seconds

Twenty-four seconds.  According to the Mayor of Dayton, Ohio, that is how long it took to kill nine people and injure fourteen people early Sunday morning, August 4, 2019.  Just twenty-four seconds, less than half a minute.  Thirteen hours earlier, on Saturday morning, August 3, 2019, in El Paso, Texas, a gunman killed twenty people and injured twenty-six people before police arrived six minutes after the shooting started. In six minutes (El Paso) and twenty-four seconds (Dayton) twenty-nine people died and fifty-three people were injured.  On Monday, the death toll from the El Paso shooting increased to twenty-two when two of the wounded died at the hospital.  Just one week earlier, three people were killed and thirteen people were injured early Sunday evening, July 28, 2019, in Gilroy, California.

The El Paso shooter was taken alive.  The Dayton shooter was killed.  The Gilroy shooter killed himself.  The El Paso shooter posted what many are referring to as a manifesto to explain his reasons for his actions before he started shooting.  The Dayton shooter and the Gilroy shooter did post anything before they started shooting. One was driven by hate and bigotry.  No one knows for certain what drove the other two.  What all three have in common is that they legally obtained the guns and ammunition they used.  This will be one of the arguments used to oppose stronger gun regulations.  Another argument will be the Second Amendment guarantee that "the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed." However, conservative Justice Antonin Scalia, in delivering the majority opinion in DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA ET AL. v. HELLER, stated that

"It is not a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose: For example, concealed weapons prohibitions have been upheld under the Amendment or state analogues. The Court’s opinion should not be taken to cast doubt on longstanding prohibitions on the possession of firearms by felons and the mentally ill, or laws forbidding the carrying of firearms in sensitive places such as schools and government buildings, or laws imposing conditions and qualifications on the commercial sale of arms. Miller’s holding that the sorts of weapons protected are those 'in common use at the time' finds support in the historical tradition of prohibiting the carrying of dangerous and unusual weapons. Pp. 54–56."

Assault weapons, while "in common use," now, are clearly "dangerous."  A weapon that can be modified, as the Dayton shooter's was, to kill nine people and injure twenty-seven people in twenty-four seconds cannot possibly be considered a gun for "common use."  Assault weapons are designed for one purpose and that purpose is to kill and injure as many people as possible in the shortest amount of time.  In Dayton, Ohio, that amount of time was twenty-four seconds.  Why does any civilian need a weapon which can kill nine people and injure twenty-seven people in twenty-four seconds?  That is not a weapon for personal protection or hunting.  That is a weapon for killing people.

Those against gun control are quick to blame mental health issues as the reason for mass shootings.  But as many have pointed out, the United States is not the only country with people who have mental health issues.  Nor, for that matter, is the United States the only country with people exposed to violent video games and movies.  Other countries do not have the number of mass shootings that the United States does.  The problem is easy access to assault weapons, ammunition and modifications to make those weapons even more deadly.  The Dayton shooter modified his weapon so that he could shoot one hundred rounds of ammunition without reloading.  He was not in a combat situation.  He was not under attack.  He was in Dayton, Ohio.

Celebrating Abraham Lincoln on President's Day 2019

Today is Monday, February 19, 2019.  Today, here in the United States, we celebrate President's Day.  The current president has called the press the enemy of the people.  The current president has suggested that Saturday Night Live should "looked into" because he did not like the way he was portrayed on the show this past weekend.  The current president declared a national emergency because Congress refused to let him use taxpayer money to build an unnecessary wall.  Forty percent of those living in the United States are celebrating the current president today.  I am not one of those people.

Today I am celebrating President Abraham Lincoln who presided over not just a national emergency, but a threat to the very idea that a democratic-republic, a country without a monarchy or dictator or emperor, could actually survive.   President Lincoln ended his First Inaugural Address with the words "We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature." 

President Lincoln ended his Second Annual Message to Congress with the words "Fellow-citizens, we can not escape history. We of this Congress and this Administration will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No personal significance or insignificance can spare one or another of us. The fiery trial through which we pass will light us down in honor or dishonor to the latest generation. We say we are for the Union. The world will not forget that we say this. We know how to save the Union. The world knows we do know how to save it. We, even we here, hold the power and bear the responsibility. In giving freedom to the slave we assure freedom to the free—honorable alike in what we give and what we preserve. We shall nobly save or meanly lose the last best hope of earth. Other means may succeed; this could not fail. The way is plain, peaceful, generous, just . . ."

President Lincoln ended the Gettysburg Address with the words "It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

President Lincoln ended his Second Inaugural Address with the words "With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations."

Those words either spoken or written by the Sixteenth President of the United States are familiar to many people.  What is perhaps less familiar are these words which President Lincoln, addressing those citizens in the States which had seceded from the Union, also said in his First Inaugural Address "You have no oath registered in heaven to destroy the Government, while I shall have the most solemn one to 'preserve, protect, and defend it.'"

Abraham Lincoln believed that to "preserve, protect, and defend" the Constitution of the United States also meant to "preserve, protect, and defend" the Union, the United States, to not allow the country to be torn apart and the Union dissolved.  President Lincoln understood that this new experiment in self-government was worth preserving not just for the moment, but for future generations and not just for the United States but for the world.

Today, February 19, 2019, as we in the United States celebrate Presidents Day and I celebrate Abraham Lincoln, I also celebrate the steps we have taken and progress we have made, slow though it may be, to becoming that "more perfect Union."

The deadliest mass shooting again . . .

What can I say to you who have just suffered such a tragic loss?  I can say "my thoughts are with you."  Or I can add my voice to the those who have sent their "thoughts and prayers."  I could join with those who are saying "enough is enough."  So what?  What good will that do?  "Thoughts and prayers" after Columbine did not prevent the shootings at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, an outdoor concert venue in Las Vegas, Nevada, Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, a movie theater in Colorado, Virginia Tech University, Sandy Hook Elementary School, Mother Emmanuel AME Church,  Umpqua Community College, a movie theater in Louisiana, or a parking lot where United States Representative Gabrielle Giffords met with her constituents.

So here we are, once again, mourning a tragic shooting.  Once again, we are told that now is not the time to talk about enacting reasonable gun control laws.  Once again, we hear that the problem is not too many guns, but not enough guns.  "If only there had been armed security guards . . . "  "If only some of the people inside had guns . . ."  Why is the response that we need to turn public and private places into armed fortresses?  Why is it that we are told we must return to the "wild, wild, West" mentality of everyone carrying a gun and engaging in shootouts? How is encouraging us to go backwards instead of forward either helpful or reasonable?  How does that resolve the problem?  How does that help all who have lost loved ones?

How many times will we hear the the words "the deadliest mass shooting . . ." before we decide that we can respect and honor the Second Amendment right to bear arms and still create reasonable gun control laws?  When will we stop adding to the pain of all who have been touched by such tragedies because once again we failed to act and they relive their own pain while others experience such indescribable pain for the first time?  When will we finally honor those who have died and not continue to let their deaths be in vain?

So what do you care about?

In the 2016 elections,you did not vote is because you did not like either presidential candidate.  You might not vote in the midterm elections this.  Why not?
 
Do you care about the environment?  Does it matter to you that scientists, yes actual scientists, have stated that we will cause irreversible harm to our planet within thirty years if we do not take active measures now to save our planet?  No?  Why not?  You might not be here in thirty years?  You do not care about those who will be here?  You do not care about the planet?
 
Women's rights, particularly the right to choose, are in danger of being eradicated.  Does that matter to you?  No? Why not?  You are not a woman?  You are a woman but you do not care about what happens to other women because it does not affect you?
 
The United States which has long tried to be the defender of democracy throughout the world, albeit imperfectly, now turns its back on its allies as its president embraces dictators and jokes about serving more than two terms and that one day our country may have a president for life.  Do you care about our Constitution?  Our democracy?  The very foundations of our government?  No?  Why not?  Do you think authoritarian all powerful rulers are better?
 
Free speech is under attack daily.  Do you care about that?  No?  Why not?  You really want to end free speech?  You really believe that having a press controlled by the government is what is best?

Social Security and Medicare are in danger, as they have been off and on, for many years.  Do you care?  No?  Why not?  You will never need Social Security and Medicare?  You believe that somehow, someway, your Social Security and Medicare will be okay.  It will just be taken away from "those people", you know, the ones who abuse the system.  Sorry to be the one to break the news to you, but when the cuts happen, they will happen to everyone, not the select few you think do not deserve it.

Social service programs will be cut.  Do you care?  No? Why not?  You do not need them?  You do not care about those who do?  So it is okay for people to starve?  That is not your problem?

Immigration is not your problem either, right?  Your ancestors came here, but others should be prevented, right?  Should we extinguish the light in Statue of Liberty's torch?  Or just remove her from the harbor?  Do you understand that people walking two thousand miles are not looking for a handout?  Do you understand that they are willing to risk their lives on a difficult journey because life in their own countries is too dangerous and too deadly?  I guess you do not care about that either.

So what do you care about?

July 4, 2018

Fourth of July has been my favorite holiday for decades.  Celebrating the birth of the United States has always been a joyous occasion.  But this year is different.  This year I find celebrating that day when, as President Lincoln said at Gettysburg, "our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal" a little difficult.  In 1986, this nation celebrated the Statue of Liberty's centennial.  Claire Cloninger wrote an additional stanza for the National Anthem for the re-dedication of the Statue of Liberty.  I think about her words "and the lantern of hope in harbor still shines, those who seek freedom's dream, to its light are still turning. . . . and this is our star-spangled banner unfurled as a sign to the free and a hope to the world" 

What happened to us in the thirty-two years since that July Fourth?  No, our country has never been perfect and to believe it ever was is foolish.  We have over come obstacles since this country declared independence, including surviving a civil war.  In the past when I reflected on July Fourth, I did so with pride at what we had overcome on our way to moving forward toward that "more perfect Union."  But as I have already written, this year is different.  Those who want to return our country to its fabled past glory days, which in fact were not filled with glory for everyone, are instead returning this country to its shameful days.     

How do I joyfully celebrate freedom and independence in a country whose current president and his administration have emboldened racism?  While racism has always a part of our country, it is once again very vocal and very visible.  Athletes who protest the inexplicable and indefensible loss of African American lives at the hands of police are vilified by the president of the United States.  White women have called the police on African Americans who were having a BBQ in a park, playing golf too slowly at a golf club, sleeping in the common area of a dormitory, sitting in a Starbucks waiting for a friend, selling water on the sidewalk and mowing the lawn.  Think about that for a moment on this day the United States celebrates freedom and independence.

How do I joyfully celebrate freedom and independence in a country whose current president and his administration separated children from parents and locked those children in cages? People fleeing with their children from life-threatening violence in their own countries are not met with welcome and comfort, but with separation and cages.  Parents and children separated from another because they were seeking asylum in the country that has the Lady in the Harbor whose torch burns day and night as reminder that all are welcome here.  Children were put in cages.  Think about that for a moment on this day the United States celebrates freedom and independence.

This is not who we will be . . .

One hundred thirty-three years ago on June 17, 1885, the pieces of the Statue of Liberty arrived in New York Harbor.  The gift from the people of France to the people of the United States of America. She was named"Liberty Enlightening the World" by her creator, Frederic-Auguste Bartholdi.  At her dedication ceremony on October 28, 1886, President Grover Cleveland said, "We will not forget that Liberty has here made her home."  Yes, Liberty had made her home here in the United States just twenty years after the end of a civil war that nearly destroyed our country.  Just twenty years after the assassination of President Lincoln.  Just twenty-three years after President Lincoln called on his fellow Americans to join with him to ensure "that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth."

She also became know as the "Mother of Exiles."  For immigrants sailing into New York harbor, she stood, torch lit, guiding them to a new land.  She held their hopes and dreams just as surely as she held her torch.  She held the promise of liberty and freedom just as surely as she held the tablet inscribed July 4, 1776.  The broken chains at her feet echoed the words of Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence that all are created equal and Abraham Lincoln's call at Gettysburg for "a new birth of freedom."  She gave light and form to this illusive concept of liberty and freedom.

One hundred thirty-three years and one day later, on June 18, 2018, we must ask ourselves, is it time to extinguish Lady Liberty's torch?  If she could, Lady Liberty would extinguish the flame with her own tears as she weeps for the children being separated from their parents.  What is happening on the Southern border of the United States is inhumane, unconscionable and American.  We cannot continue to say "this is not who we are" because this is exactly who we are.  We are a country who declared independence from Great Britain with the words "all men are created equal" while enslaving a group of people based on the color of their skin.  We are a country who created a new form of government "in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity."  But still kept a group of people enslaved because of the color of their skin and took their children from them to sell to the highest bidder.

We are a country who called a group of people savages, then forced them off their lands and on to reservations because of the color of their skin.  We are a country who imprisoned a group of people in concentration camps because of their ethnicity.  We are country whose people have committed horrendous atrocities to others just because of the color of their skin or their ethnicity.  That is our legacy.  It is shameful, but it is one we must own and accept as part of our nation's past.  So we must stop saying "this is not who are."  We can only say "this is not who we will be."  And say it we must or we shall lose any hope we have of ever becoming that "more perfect Union."

How Many More Tears Will We Have To Shed?

I have wept for lives lost from Columbine High School to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and every mass shooting in between.  I have wept for the families, friends, and school faculty of those who were killed as they tried to find the words to express what must be indescribable grief.  I have wept for all those who survived the horror and especially those who witnessed the horror in schools, colleges, universities, movie theaters, churches, parking lots and a nightclub as they tried to find the words to express what those moments of terror and tragedy were like.  I have wept in sadness and in anger and in frustration.

How many more tears will we have to shed before we stop the madness?  How many more families will be shattered?  How many more will witness a horror that they cannot forget?  How many more lives will be taken before we really do something?  How many more times will we hear or read the same words from politicians sending their thoughts and prayers?  How many more times will we hear or read that this is not the time to talk about gun control?  That we should focus on the families of those who were killed?  What better way to honor the families and friends of those who died as well as those who survived but must live with the physical and emotional scars of the shootings than by doing something to at least try to stop this from happening over and over?  

Make no mistake, those who lost their lives did not do so because this is the price we pay for freedom. They did not willingly give their lives defending freedom. Churches, schools, colleges, universities, movie theaters, outdoor concerts, outdoor meetings between a Congressional Representative and constituents, or a nightclub were not battlegrounds where people were fighting to defend freedoms. The lives lost in these mass shootings were not lost because they were "fighting the good fight" so that all might be free.  Their lives were stolen from them. There is no reason for assault-style weapons to be sold. That is not a second amendment issue. That is a common sense issue and banning assault-style weapons will not lead to the erosion of our rights.  But it just might save lives.