That old cliché, “’Twas a dark and stormy night,” applies tonight. It is depressingly dark early, and I hear distant thunder. Sophie refuses to leave my side. We need the rain so badly that I would welcome a good storm, if I could add certain conditions: no hail, no tornadoes, just rain—preferably steady and not too heavy. As it is I fear it will once again pass over. I think tonight of the people of southern Ontario where a terrific storm swept across the land, moving from Toronto to Ottawa, where it flattened many old, sturdy hardwood trees. One forester said Ottawa’s tree canopy was forever changed. Some used the term derecho, so I’ll add that to my conditions, no derecho.
The dark
night seems to reflect the national mood tonight. We are once again grieving a
mass shooting, this another horrific targeting of young children. What kind of
a madman shoots innocent young children? We will never know for sure because the
shooter at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, Texas, was killed on the spot. But for
many of us, the images of Sandy Hook have come roaring back with unbelievable
tenacity.
President
Biden spoke for many of us tonight in his brief words from the White House. At
first, his grief rendered him almost speechless, but then grief turned to anger
as he lashed out at the fact that we are the only country to suffer such mass
shootings. Other countries have angry people, mentally disturbed people, but
they do not have mass shootings. It is of course because we have gun control
that is ineffective and almost non-existent. The president called for lawmakers
to get a backbone and do what we all know needs to be done.
I can
add nothing to the words that are flying across the internet tonight. Except to
say that many of our gun aficionados on Facebook are downright scary people. They
range from the woman who told me her husband needs an assault rifle to hunt the
wild hogs that infest much of the South and Southwest to those who told me
their guns are protection: if the Russians attack, they are ready. I can almost
understand the wild hog argument—my brother has a ranch, and the hogs are so
destructive as to be beyond description. They are also tough and numerous—if you
hunt with a rifle, you get one at a time. If you hunt with an assault weapon, your
stats are better—and that matters to ranchers whose livelihood is threatened; many
of whom hunt almost nightly as a means of self-preservation. The flaw in that
argument is that if assault weapons are legal for a small group of people, they
will inevitably work their way into the hands of those who should not have
them.
The self-protection
people are more scary. They truly believe they could stand off a Russian
invasion, completely overlooking the selfish patriotism, long years of
organized training and preparation that have gone into Ukraine’s ability to
counter the Russian invasion. Some believe that their guns are protection against
their own government. And too many speak of the coming civil war. These folks always
overlook the part of the Second Amendment that calls for an organized militia.
In fact, they overlook the entire working of the amendment, bending it to their
will and refusing to see the difference between weapons in the eighteenth
century and today.
Gun
folks never mention the mass shootings but they talk about all the illegal
criminals Biden is letting in (actually he is under court order to turn immigrants
away and most aren’t criminals, but that’s another topic for another day). They
claim only criminals will have guns. Their arguments are almost desperate, and
often semi-literate. They scare me. And they are rude. I have been criticized, insulted,
dismissed as both naïve and an idiot by people who have no rational answers. If
you question their statements or logic, they shut down and don’t answer.
So my
reluctant conclusion is that logic will do not good. Neither will grief nor
appeals to their better selves. We need anger, active anger on the part of all
of us. And we need new legislators and a new SCOTUS.
The town
of Uvalde, the state of Texas, and the whole country grieve tonight. I cannot
imagine the families who sent their children off to school this morning, only
to learn that they’ll never see them again. My heart breaks. But we must move
on to the anger part. This is a call to arms. We’ve had those calls before—too many
of them. What is it going to take to break this pattern? (Note: the NRA is
meeting this week in Hoston; trump and Abbott will speak.)
And on
a good note for the night: we are getting a nice soaking rain. It didn’t last
long enough, but it was lovely while it did. One big clap of thunder sent
Sophie scurring to her hidey hole between the couch and the coffee table—she thinks
she is invisible when she’s there.
