In the wake of the
unspeakable evil that has befallen not just our nation, but the entire planet,
our president has vowed to take action to ensure that this senseless mass
murder of children does not happen again.
Any fool to the left of the NRA can see that we need to do something
about the proliferation of guns in our nation.
Not surprisingly, we are way ahead of the rest of the world in per capita gun ownership. Yet gun
control is not the entire answer. I hope
President Obama gets that. In his initial
address to the families of the slain, he stated that he wants to call together
psychiatrists and educators to address the issue. He has since convened his panel, led by Vice
President Joe Biden. According to CNN, the task force panel
includes Homeland Security chief, Janet Napolitano, and Attorney
General Eric Holder among
others. The only educator named was
Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan. No psychiatrists. No sociologists. No communications specialists. Perhaps people from these professions will be
consulted. But as the council appears to
be constituted, it looks like the task force may come up light in the “why”
department.
This ongoing homegrown
terrorism bespeaks a profound malaise that is destroying our nation from
within. In the white community, it is manifest by mass shootings in malls, high
schools, and now, finally and unthinkably, an elementary school. In the African American community it is
manifest as the ongoing slaughter, day after day, weekend after weekend, of
mostly innocent black children by gang members who shoot first and aim later. Living in Chicago, I avoid the local news
because the steady stream of black mothers mourning their slain children has
become unbearable. The scope of
Americans slaughtering other Americans has reached a point that it is more than
abundantly clear to any rational person that there is a profound illness
debilitating this country. It is also equally clear that our tolerance
for black children killing black children represents a different level of
illness in this country.
I can’t begin to say why so
many young white males snap and just start shooting up schools and malls. I can say that the ongoing slaughter in the African
American community is a large part of the legacy of slavery. It is the result of (1) the deterioration
of the black family (2) intense economic pressures within the community (3) intentional
social engineering by the powers that be (4) hopelessness (5) an exaggeration of
the deterioration of American society in general and (6) self
hatred/ignorance.
Based upon how this task
force has been constructed and the history of how things are done in this
country, I can’t help feeling that the answers to our violence problem emphasis
will be rooted in law enforcement. For
Black folks, lawlessness and law enforcement represent the rock and hard place
between which we constantly find ourselves.
Criminals shoot up our neighborhoods and leave us in
such trauma and fear that we freely allow for the abrogation of our rights in
the name of safety. Considering that Chicago
homicides continue to outpace Afghan war casualties there can be little
wonder that we clamor for the National Guard to patrol our streets.
President Obama was right when he said that this issue must remain above politics. That statement was a preemptive strike at the
onslaught of political backlash that he knows will accompany any serious
attempt at a resolution. Many people may wonder how dealing with such a
profound issue could possibly be deemed political. The truth is that it already is very much a
political issue.
What Mr. Obama implied, but
could not come right out and say, is that the culture of the right wing in this
country is one of denial; denial that American has ever done anything wrong,
ever will do anything wrong, or could possibly have anything wrong with
itself. The right wing, led by people
like Sean Hannity has lambasted the president for saying anything that remotely
resembles an understanding that this county is first among equal partners in
the world and NOT the Lord and Master of the entire planet. This denial is the very bedrock of the right
wing; the foundation upon which all of its tenets are based. It is a denial so colossal and profound in
scope that people like Rush Limbaugh have had to create an alternative universe
in which white people have been oppressed by everyone else.
Do not be surprised if the
right wing dismisses any attempts at diagnosing and treating our illness as un-American and possibly Communist inspired.
It’s what we expect from them. The question is whether or not the Obama
task force will take this opportunity to address the chronic violence of African
America as well as the mass shootings in Norman Rockwell’s America. My optimism and hope tell me that it’s possible. My experience and age tell me not to bet on
it.
Coming next: violence against
women
William M. Griggs, author, The Megalight Connection
Great post. It is a part of America's addition to cure problems with prescriptions and not address issues proactively supporting prevention and real social change. The cycle continues with the laser focus on gun control and little to no attention to mental health issues and the societal depression in Black neighborhoods. I don't think enough thought has been given to ways we can address these issues.
ReplyDeleteExcellent comment. Very insightful. This blog or any other, will only have meaning when there is participation from young
ReplyDeletepeople such as yourself.
What is causing the White, African and Latino communities to deteriorate? There are so many factors and variables that cause so many conflicts within these communities. However, as we look deeply into these people groups we see a common thread that few people either haven’t noticed or they refuse to address. As mentioned gun control is not the entire answer. What is the answer or partial answer to the illness that plagues our community and our country? If we are honest with ourselves, I believe that our sickness began to manifest itself in the 1960s. Our infirmity began before the 1960s most likely during the 1920s when Mafia gangs roamed the streets of Chicago. But for us the 1960s was historically a flash point in terms of how we viewed life and the world in general.
ReplyDeleteThe deterioration of urban families has metastasized and spread to suburban communities’ and in the process what has emerged from this disease is megalomania. Our communities are in a deep need of a biopsy and if we are truly honest with ourselves, we need to put aside political correctness, politics and focus on factual correctness. The home is the foundation or pillar of our society and that is not being addressed. It is not the culture of the “right wing” that is the cause of shootings, rapes, child abuse, but a breakdown of moral absolutes within the family structure.
A case in point is the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta, Georgia which estimates that 72.3 % of black families are born out of wedlock. Among Hispanics it is 53.3 %, whites it is 29.1 % and Asian it is 17.2 % why is this? It behooves us all as people of color to encourage our children to instill moral absolutes and to teach them that sex outside of marriage is wrong and having children outside of marriage inspires poverty. Is this what we want for our children? Isn’t this in part a reason why we have so much crime in our cities? We have children growing up with no married fathers. The culture of the right is not responsible for our plight; it is we ourselves who are to blame for the condition that we are in. The government is not the solution nor is our president. We need to come together and reclaim the Judeo-Christian values that we once learned on our Mama’s lap.
Fantastic post, WG, and very interesting responses. I think the violence plaguing America (and you are right, WG, we lead the developed world in this regard) has complex antecedents and requires a complex, multi-pronged approach to solutions. We will never get there, though, if we do not acknowledge and find some redress for the looming legacy of slavery, the staggering income and education gap (which contribute to the combustible black and white resentments that fuel violence) and the need for more comprehensive and easily accessible mental health services.
ReplyDeleteAddressing those issues alone could help stem the tide of violence even if we never reach consensus on gun control. Of course, we will never make progress on those fronts as long as Americans continue to cling to the belief that rugged individualism is the country's bedrock value and that we have no responsibility for the care and well-being of our neighbors (That is unless our neighbor wants to lay down with someone of the same sex).