It’s hard to avoid the conversations going on in my school district office today, or to look away from the worried eyes of my co-workers as they stare at their computers reading the news.
Anxious, muffled conversations are taking place among the mothers in our staff in the hallway, some with kids the ages of those kids at Sandy Hook School in Connecticut, others with kids fully grown and away at school far from home, growing into their adulthood. It’s more than heartache everyone feels. It’s shock. Our hearts have been vacuumed clean out.
We’re trying to reassure ourselves past the grief-numbness we feel with the reassurance that It can’t happen here. ‘Thank God my child is safe’. That’s the mantra.
It’s predictable as the programming you’ll get on the news channels after any act of gun-related violence in America, which is actually an inoculation against reality. The drug in that inoculation is the reassurance that it will never happen to you, or anyone you love. And these are probably going to be the words that will be shared amongst many of these same mothers in the hallway by early next week.
That’s how this will be played out. I predict within a discreet waiting period of roughly 24 hours, an attractive blond spokeswoman from the National Rifle Association will issue a statement: “There are already enough laws, tests and screenings in place to prevent this kind of thing from happening. And even though this is a horrible, senseless tragedy…blah-blah-blah…we of the NRA who are also mothers, fathers, parents of children in schools…blah-blah-blah…we must uphold our Second Amendment rights…blah-blah-blah.” And onward we go until the next disaster news bubble.
But let’s break down these moments as we’re feeling this grief and shock at a national level. It’s important to examine how truly desensitized we’ve been made to the preventable random, senseless gun violence we’ve witnessed today and on many other days in our recent past, and are sure to be witnessing in our future. Random mass shootings are a signature event in our culture now. Not just in Newtown, Connecticut, or the town of Aurora and Columbine High School in Colorado, or at Virginia Tech, but anywhere in America.
Prior to the ratification of the Constitution and its Bill of Rights in 1791, the concerns of the first citizens of the United States were to deter attack and oppression by tyrannical government, repel invasion, suppress insurrection, facilitate a natural right of self-defense, participate in law enforcement, and enable the people to organize a militia system. If I remember my history correctly, the ability to legally bear arms was justifiable as a defense mechanism in response to England’s monarchical tyranny in order to quickly create an army in the event of massive attack — such as the English perpetrated on its American colonists during the revolution.
In response, Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution codified the right to bear arms for national self-defense by allowing the Congress to “provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States; raise and support armies; provide and maintain a navy; make rules for the government and regulation of the land and naval forces; provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the union, suppress insurrections and repel invasions; provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining the militia, and for governing such part of them as may be employed in the service of the United States, reserving to the states respectively, the appointment of the officers, and the authority of training the militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress.”
Though the second amendment may be called The Right to Bear Arms, it was drafted as a means for 18th century citizens to protect themselves from enemy attack. How we have come to this morning in Newtown, Connecticut in the 21st century is now — like so many other institutions holding up our great society in this age of Pluto in Capricorn — a matter ripe for an MRI. The very people who still maintain they need to fight for the right to own as many automatic weapons as they can, legally purchased or not, are also as unaware of the history that gave them that right. Note the immortal words of former a Vice-Presidential candidate:
He who warned, uh, the British that they weren’t gonna be takin’ away our arms, uh, by ringing those bells, and um, makin’ sure as he’s riding his horse through town to send those warning shots and bells that we were going to be sure and we were going to be free, and we were going to be armed. — Sarah Palin, botching the history of Paul Revere’s midnight ride, June 3, 2011.
Incomprehensible or not, there are still so many who feel as entitled to their guns as they are of the cartoon version of American history that enables their ownership regardless of reality. That same cartoon enables the weapons industry to prey upon a sense of powerlessness and fear that we often feel under the pressure of a struggling economy, where the rich ones get and the poor ones pay.
That same sense of inadequacy haunts us today in a society where women are taking the reins more, and where men feel adrift of previously accepted norms of what is considered masculine. A quick peek at the current leadership of the National Rifle Association will tell you a lot about the psyche and economic interests of the people running that ship. The Founding Fathers would be spinning in their catacombs.
The gun lobby protects an industry that buys political silence on a day like today. It turns a blind eye to illegal gun sales and allows purchase at gun shows of automatic weaponry — weapons with no other purpose than to kill large groups of people — and it should be looked at with a glaring light overhead. It is an industry that is as ripe for our collective dissection as are the predatory banks.
After all these years, watching the news while Americans from presidents to preachers were gunned down, I have reluctantly silenced myself from the criticism of guns and gun ownership, because the spectrum of gun owners across America is as wide ranging as gang kids from Richmond High School who should not have guns, to my brother-in-law in Santa Cruz, California, who 30 yeas ago used his gun to quickly kill livestock for food.
There are a lot of good people in between who own guns and own them responsibly. Yet, as we have watched and listened to the timeline of our modern-day history, peppered with gunshots, we have lost our senses and bits and pieces of our soul. Now with the deaths of so many children, our silence on the subject of gun control signals a loss of our collective sanity.
Yes, random violence can and does happen. But if we start today to act past the numbness and grief we feel in sympathy, perhaps we can fight to make access to deadly weapons more difficult — like MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) who fought for harsher penalties for driving under the influence of alcohol. I don’t care if you think this is reactionary or not, a temporary setback, a random occurrence. We’ve added pre-schoolers to the list of presidents and preachers, and we need to stop somewhere, anywhere and start drawing a line in the sand. We need to dare to ask, “When is this going to stop?” And we need to do this now.
sorry to be going on and on…the story of the boy whose parents gave him a gun was from The People of the Lie — which is a book about evil written by Peck.
The fun lobby? What an amazing slip!
The gun lobby–but you know to some people have convinced themselves killing is fun (or maybe they are dead already and just want company).
Didn’t realize that you worked at schools Fe.
I was in my office (at my school) when I read about what happened and it made me cry. Then I was in a hallway and spoke to one of our special ed aides–about guns and how they aren’t safe to have (she’d owned one once and sold it because she realized it was a dangerous thing to have).–and she also said the news made her cry.
Now I’m angry–and not at the fun lobby. I’m angry that we are so fucking unconscious!
I’ve been thinking about how crappy we are about understanding psychology and how we fuck up our kids! I’m reminded of a story in “The Road Less Traveled” in which Scott Peck describes parents giving their son a gun–after their other son killed himself. Unconsciously we are on a death march–and plenty of people don’t love their kids (because they don’t love themselves.) I wish that some day we recognize this and learn to love ourselves and to find outlets for our frustration and anger–to put that energy into something that doesn’t hard us and others.
On Thursday, at my school, we had a team in to counsel a girl who was suicidal. I was in another room talking to the school counselor who made the strange comment that in the old days, when we were kids (she’s about 20 years younger than me) we were happy and this didn’t happen–so I told her that I grew up in a home that was miserable. My mom was mentally ill–and her illness wasn’t just from a chemical imbalance–she was pushed over into real illness by abusive and unloving parents. Had she had sensitive, loving parents, she would have probably been okay. My father also was damaged–by insensitivity and cluelessness for certain.
There would be less mental illness if we were aware of how crazy we are and how mindful we need to be when we deal with others–especially our own children. I just don’t buy that the parents of this shooter would have gotten their son care (I read this in one of the reports), because I don’t think they even realize how wack they must have been to teach that kid to go shooting in the first place.
This incident is a symbolic reminder of what we are doing right now–with guns, with pollution, with the crap we create to put in our minds. It is bigger than just guns. It’s about the destructive force that hates innocence and that hates love–we need to learn how to channel that energy into something positive–be we have to own that that mother set up that situation (and we will find out how the father was involved as time goes on) and we all need to deal with the hurts from our own neglect (and as a parent I know that there is always going to be something that you neglected–not to be guilty about it, but to let your child know that you know–and that they are loved.)
Sorry for ranting! I just am angry that what I read in the media is so superficial and stupid.
On top of our denial of making ourselves crazy — then, to me, the issue of these powerful weapons sold to anyone is the ribbon on the crazy-sad-sick-suicidal package.
Well said, Fe. If I may offer a couple of thoughts from a spot on the map where the natives make a hysterical run on ammo every time there’s a murmur of speculation about regulation, three-quarters of the guns used in this kind of tragic circumstance over the last decade were legally registered. We either don’t have a clear understanding of “fatal force” in this nation, or we have very little respect for life; likely both.
In my piece today, I noted the knife attack on 22 Chinese schoolkids by a local — and not one of them, nor the adult with them, died from their wounds. Other countries have their crazies, but — unlike them — we feel we should have at least one gun … like a chicken in every pot and a car in every garage … without being sensitive to the plight of the chicken, the environmental ramifications of the car and, sadly, the final destination of the bullet.
We’re an incredibly irresponsible nation. I’m reminded of the guy in Florida who shot the teens because their loud music offended him, then tried to plead Stand Your Ground (it didn’t work, he’s been indicted for first-degree murder.) We’ve romanticized “shoot first, ask questions later.” It’s the George W. shit-kicker consciousness. It defines us now.
Another thing, at least worth looking at, is how ‘male’ this energy is. When was the last time a woman went mental and sprayed strangers with bullets? (And they tell us WE’RE emotionally-loaded hysterics!) There’s a pertinent read over at AlterNet, titled “Is a Crisis in White Masculinity Leading to Horrific Gun Crimes Like the Sandy Hook Shootings?” It posits a racial theme over our treatment of white shooters as mental, while assuming that dark skinned or foreign shooters are involved in some evil terrorist plot.
http://www.alternet.org/visions/crisis-white-masculinity-leading-horrific-gun-crimes-sandy-hook-shootings
Point taken, but I think perhaps the real story here is the crisis of masculinity, period. Palin notwithstanding, this is so entwined in the fear-base of the conservative movement — who prefer their firearms loaded and their women under control — that it simply can’t be sorted out. Women have had a long history of consciousness raising, giving us, at minimum, practice in re-thinking the circumstance of our sexual roles — where’s the men’s movement, allowing them space and grace to recalibrate their sense of Self without packing heat or purposely dumbing down emotionally to self-protect?
More questions than answers, lately. Divine, I suspect.
I am deeply impressed by Alexander’s comment.
Actually, I am entangled in a confusion of (sad) feelings right now. Connecticut is where I have lived when I was in the US, and I was once in Newtown, to visit a school (not that one). I deeply love Ct, and I have always considered it as a sort of ‘happy island’, sort of unreal, but if the unreal is beautiful – why not?
Now I feel as if the dream was broken, and it perfectly fits with the transit of Saturn on my Neptune (right now), trine to Venus and sextile to the Moon.
When I was there the only one experience I had with weapons was when a person coming from Alaska and carrying a gun came to sleep where I was. I was told he had to have a gun because he lived in the wilderness there. I obtained the gun stayed outside of the house. I did not have any other direct experience, but I totally agree with the fact that it’s crazy.
Well, just some (personal) considerations.
And love and light to those parents.
re: the name meaning – http://www.behindthename.com/name/sandy
I think here of William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, in terms of the current state of mental health of project U.S.A. Since the inception of ‘paradise’ predicated upon theft of a continent, there has been a protectionist malaise involving the utter myth of ‘rights’.
The whole drama is one of savagery dressed up as nobility. But, as with Piggy, Ralph, Simon and co; once the body politic becomes cut adrift from broader, civilising influences, decay and ultimately depravity and savagery are never far away.
The United States, if it were conferred with personhood, would surely attract a mental illness diagnosis under its own DSM 5 classifying system. I would encourage all Americans who love sane living possibilities to seriously consider emigration. The barbarism that lies so close to the surface can be found anywhere in the world. But elsewhere you will not find it so crudely paraded within a nation state ideal that glorifies rights at the expense of true liberty for citizens.
Step outside Amero-centrism and find yourself within a true freedom and not the quagmire of endless bullshit rationalisations.
May God forgive the blatant insanity of allowing citizens to carry lethal weapons. Only a delusional can consider such justifiable!
“Write your Sad times in Sand, Write your Good times in Stone.” – George Bernard Shaw
“If we sit by and become complacent and put our heads in the sand we’re complicit.” – Shelley Morrison
“If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in 5 years there’d be a shortage of sand.” – Milton Friedman
“Are you tired of sand being kicked in your face? I promise you new muscles in days!” – Charles Atlas
We DO need to draw a line in the sand Fe. Thanks for saying that.
be
Sandy Hook elementary school; a storm named Sandy
Anyone else bedeviled by this coincidence? What else do they have in common? Too much of a bad thing. Untold grief. Riveting news. Begs an answer to What Could We Have Done To Prevent This From Happenining?
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Chief:
Thanks for the reminder of personal WMDs.
I had an interesting discussion with a general contractor today in my office. He started the conversation about Sandy Hook. Most construction guys I know are conservatives, watch Fox News. This guy was pretty shaken up by what happened in Connecticut and was wondering when “some idiot at Fox would say the usual bullshit” that the NRA promotes to continue justifying the Gun Lobby’s agenda.
We had a good conversation from opposing sides of the political spectrum. With him a gun owner condemning the sale of automatic weapons which makes it easy for any nincompoop to kill, after a few tens of rounds”. He recalled how his father brought him to the shooting range for target practice (mostly for game) to hunt for food with an economy of shots. I commended him and respected his experience and appreciation of hunting his food. It was an exchange of two people from opposing ends coming to grips with the shock and in large part agreeing. It gave me a glimmer of hope.
On an added note, his area of construction expertise is school security systems.
Thank you Fe.
We must remember that the US did not have a standing army when it was first formed, the “founding fathers” feared that a standing army could be used by an unscrupulous government for tyrannical purposes. The Militia, mentioned but oft forgotten in the 2nd Amendment, was the only organized national defense after the Constitutional government was formed in 1787.
Additionally, at that time a muzzle loading rifle could be fired 2, possibly 3 times in a minute, a very different tool than automatic weapons. We must also consider that most landowners had a rifle to hunt, but could not afford large collections of weapons. The ideas of the 2nd amendment at the time of it’s writing made complete sense, it does not however speak to the realities of our current age.
I hope that is the wake of this sad day, and long before the next one, we as a country can have a meaningful and accurate conversation about weapons of mass destruction in our own nation.
The 2nd Amendment protects the right to organize armed militias. But note that’s the first thing that the Feds will swoop in and stop. The purpose of the right to have the guns is the “well organized militia.” That part of the sentence gets left out every time the discussion comes up.
i think this is important enough to post in both places:
and for anyone with young kids, or who knows someone who does:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/15/health/tips-for-talking-to-children-about-the-elementary-school-mass-shooting.html?_r=0&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1355521943-khtdWjDXnInHg1EcDj6oKA
an article on how to help young ones understand and cope with news like this — in addition to turning off the tv and social media for them.