Tag: activism

Please, Do Something

I thought I would share a Facebook post I wrote from this date in 2018. While I hold out hope that we might one day find this shared truth as a nation, I am relatively certain I could post this in another six years, and it would be just as relevant as it is today. Alas, as a gun owner myself, I give these words back to you today.

February 16, 2018:

Why must we limit the causation of horrific acts to a single factor? Nobody blames guns. Nobody should blame the mentally ill. This is not about blame. This is about prevention. It’s not about the 2nd Amendment. It’s about our children. Who says we have to search for a single-track solution. One simply does not exist. But this isn’t really about finding a solution.

You see, to find common ground, you have to have shared truth. We could not address the public health crisis of smoking as long as society didn’t accept the truth that smoking tobacco makes people sick. The tobacco itself isn’t inherently bad. Nobody blames the plant. But you cannot remove tobacco from the equation. We could not address the crisis until we accepted the inconvenient truth.

We will continue down the same road we’re on until we accept the fact that a lot of people should never come into possession of a gun. Just like we accept that few people should have access to a bazooka. Just like we accept that vehicles must be regulated. Just like we accept that bridges must meet stringent construction standards. There will be no solution until we are courageous enough to admit that we have a problem. We will not solve anything until we accept that what we’re currently doing, is not working.

If you pray, pray we’ll reach our shared truth. If you act, act in the memory of those we have failed. Be courageous enough to find a new way. But please, do something.

When Will It Be Enough?

When I closed my computer yesterday, in preparation to spend the evening with my wife, I had fully intended to write a post today about the onset of Fall in the Sonoran Desert of Arizona. I would tell you about a day I hold sacred; The first day of the season when the high temperatures do not go higher than 80 degrees. I would talk about how I eagerly restocked my bird feeders, happily watered my orange tree, and actually sat outside in the afternoon for more than five minutes. All without a drop of sweat beading on my brow. I would tell you about how I watched the woodpeckers methodically taking peanuts from the feeder, then flying off to various palm trees in my yard and elsewhere in the neighborhood, to store their newfound abundance for a later day. That’s what I intended to write today.

That intention vanished as soon as news of the latest American mass shooting, this time in the small city of Lewiston, Maine. My heart sank. It always does. I am an unwavering optimist. I believe there are no problems that collectively, as human beings, we cannot solve. I know we can do it. All you have to do is take a look at countries in Europe. Though the optimism is still there, I continue to be disheartened at America’s inability, or unwillingness, to even try to address this carnage. I woke up this morning asking myself, “When will it be enough?” When will Americans admit that doing nothing isn’t working? If 1st graders in Newton, Connecticut didn’t do it, maybe it was more elementary school children in Uvalde, Texas? No, that did nothing. So, what will it take? When will it be enough for you?

When will it be enough for you? When will you, as an individual, determine that what we are doing in this country concerning gun violence and mass shootings is not working. Because right now, we’re doing nothing. There are individuals who recognize the patterns and are aware enough to know that this isn’t a problem the rest of the world has to worry about. They use their voice. They show up for elections. They know Sandy Hook was an abomination, leaving a permanent scar on the fabric of our society. When will you join them? When will you be courageous enough to say publicly that we need solutions? When will you use your power to say, “Enough, already!”

Some of you, once you figured out the subject of this post, immediately dismissed these words. That doesn’t bother me. It doesn’t bother me because I know that if we continue to do nothing, what happened in Lewiston, ME will continue to happen. It will happen in big cities. It will happen again in small towns, like Lewiston. It will continue to happen until enough of us decide that inaction is not acceptable. It doesn’t matter if it’s hard. It doesn’t matter if there isn’t a perfect solution. There are options out there if we are humble enough to acknowledge they exist.

So, I ask again. When will it be enough for you?