The instinctive reaction to any suffering or death is to ask
“Why?” We think that an answer will help
relieve our pain, but it never does. Here,
though, the answer “He was mentally ill” is not seriously trying to relieve the
pain of victims’ families or of the nation.
It’s actually a device to keep the nation from looking for the real cause
of gun violence.
So, let me reframe the “mentally ill” answer. Instead of laying that label at the feet of
the killers (many of whom have some mental illness), we need to apply the term
to our gun-saturated, Second-Amendment obsessed culture.
Our culture is at least sociopathic when it comes to
conflict, guns, the gun industry, the military-industrial complex, the NRA, the
build-up and distribution of weapons of mass destruction to all parts of the
world. We glorify violence through our
TV programs, movies, and novels. It has
become entertainment. Our national
pastime, football, now lists all the injuries to players each week in the
papers. And we cheer when our guy hurts
their guy.
Our presidential campaigns are filled with personal attacks,
violence against truth, and dominating competition—gladiators playing to the
death.
Throughout history, nation states possessing killing weapons
and armies, along with their allies—religions and corporate wealth and
power—have plagued the earth community by colonizing countries and building
empire societies. The United States is
an empire society, a dominating culture ruled by corporate people of wealth. It
is not, nor has ever been, a democracy where all people are equal and actually
have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
The United States is a bully state. We live in a climate of conflict and
violence, of guns and “my individual rights” at the expense of others’ rights
to life and happiness. Guns facilitate bullying in any relationship—whether by
a hunter toward a deer, an angry husband toward his wife, a frustrated Adam
Lanza toward 600 tiny children.
What should be done?
Prayers and condolences are not sufficient. While they comfort the victims and us, they
don’t change anything in the culture.
First, we should
repeal the Second Amendment. There certainly isn’t anything sacred about an
amendment for the right to bear arms when, back then, citizens had single-shot
weapons and no active military.
Second, the federal
government cannot allow the gun industry and all the private military contractors
to keep dictating national and foreign policy on the making, selling, and use
of guns. The United States cannot continue
to act as the primary promoter of guns and murderous weapons around the world.
Third (and the hardest
of all). We, the people, must transform
the United States from being an Empire Nation into an Earth Community. We need to create a nation where all people
are equal and respected, where the good of the community comes before our
individual rights, where our natural resources are protected and used
reasonably for the good of all people, all species of animal and plant, and for
the good of Earth itself. This kind of
Earth Community needs to become real in our homes and our neighborhoods. Then it can grow in our cities, states, and
eventually, our nation. When the United
States becomes an Earth Community, then the world will lay down its guns.
Dale Olen