15 December 2012

Let's Just Get This Out of the Way.

"Nothing can prevent the crazy actions of one sicko." 
First of all, can we stop kidding ourselves? As a country we do not say "this shooting" we say "these shootings." The problem here is not one lone gunman on the grassy knoll. It's a lawn full of grassy knoll shooters. You can't park your picnic blanket down on America's grassy knoll without hitting the guy who is the proverbial sandwich short. America is not rocked by a tragedy. We have been getting pummeled by tragedy after tragedy. Same f*cking story every time, just tweaks on the deets. And guess what? A combination of mental health reform, gun regulation and the willingness to pay for security in schools would prevent most of it. Practically all of it.

"This is happening because we don't allow the Bible/God in school!" 
You know who who really liked to read his Bible? The LA bath salt face-eater. Oh, except it turns out he wasn't on bath salts, he was just a psycho whipped up into a bizarre religious frenzy. He had a bible on him before he stripped naked, as a matter of fact. You know who else enjoyed her faith in God? Andrea Yates, as she methodically drowned her 5 kids in the bathtub. She was convinced the Devil was going to get them after getting involved in fundamentalist Christianity. Yes, I am aware it wasn't God or the Bible that did this, the perps are sick in the head. The point is, Bibles in schools would only give psychologically fragile people some fire and brimstone style motivation for their madness, and some quotes for their YouTube screed. 

"All schools should have armed personnel and alarm systems!" 
Okay, so who pays for it?  No one wants higher taxes, hell no one wants to pay teachers these days. So all these millions of dollars to outfit the schools with security technology and now an extra salary, per school, to a hire a guard comes from... Beuller? ...Beuller?

"Another Autistic kid, when are we going to do something about them?" 
People who go on shooting sprees are not "Autistic" they are "Psychotic" or a "Sociopath." While an Autistic kid may have trouble deciphering other's emotions and processing their own emotions appropriately, they do have them and they generally don't want to hurt anyone or anything. So stop that and stop it now.

"What about that Chinese creep who went crazy with a knife and stabbed 22 kids?? No one is talking about that!" 
Yes they are, but guess what? NO ONE DIED. All those kids can go home into their parents waiting arms, and with a little counseling, come out okay.

"No one's banning cars!" 
But there has been sweeping reform on drunk driving, texting and talking on the phone while driving, wearing seatbelts, deploying airbags, making cars safer in the event of an accident. You need to be licensed, registered and insured. Not to mention if there was a sudden upsurge in people doing kamikaze style car crash murders,wiping out dozens of people at a time, you bet your sweet bippy we'd all be talking about control and prevention. Self driving tech would not only be here, it'd be standard. 

"We have to stop the madness! We have to fight this senseless violence!" 
While I agree with the sentiment, I feel this is one of the most empty expressions of them all. Anyone who fights against healthcare and mental health care, against a serious discussion about gun regulation, against finding a way to stop institutionalized racism and homophobia, against education, against drug rehabilitation and programs to help the desperate in our communities or promotes fear and loathing of their fellow man does not wish to do anything. They simply want the "bad guys" to "go away" so they can go back to their narrow world view and tell themselves everything is good the way it is.


In closing, to have a rational discussion about this we have to go beyond the soundbites, platitudes and calls for the impossible. Our grassy knoll problems are more than simply "guns," ""crazies," "God," and lack of "punishment." It's complex and it starts with our unwillingness to admit our fundamental societal flaws and ends with our lack of effort and desire to actually change. One thing is for sure, all these sentiments do is, again, polarize people into two equally ridiculous camps. Then everyone is too busy fighting on social media to act. (Which comes full circle to the issue of no one really wanting to do anything about it besides complain.) 

So, yeah, move past this crap. Have some respect that 20 little kids bodies are still lying cold in a schoolroom because we never want to do anything except argue these dumb points after each senseless tragedy. 

3 comments:

steve said...

Well said...

EM Hum said...

Thx, man. I try. :)

cath c said...

you know this post hits me very personally in every way. thanks.