I feel like a fraud. I am a fraud. I've watched the news coverage of mass shootings across the United States, starting with Columbine and including but not limited to Virginia Tech, a Sikh Temple, an Amish School... I've watched the coverage and I've tisked, tisked and sighed and thought, "How terrible." But I've done nothing. I've said nothing. I've gone about my business and never held my elected leaders to account for doing nothing to fix the gun laws in this country. I've known that our mental health system was broken, and I've done nothing to fix it.
It took a tragedy in a town close to where I grew up, where my brother teaches today, for me to finally realize that we are all frauds. We are pretending that we live in a civilized society, but what kind of society has these types of unspeakable horrors occur again and again and again and again and does nothing? There is nothing civilized about us.
Here's what I want. I want to live in a commun
ity where I can send my child on a school bus and feel at peace. I want to leave my doors unlocked when I leave for a week's vacation. I want to walk into a dark movie theater and just think about the popcorn I'm going to eat. That's the community I want. It's not too much to ask. To have that kind of community, I believe we need to reform our gun laws to make it harder for people with severe mental illness to buy a weapon that can kill a classroom full of children in seconds. I don't want to ban all guns. I don't want to stop people from carrying guns. I just want it to be a little more difficult for someone who is unbalanced to get a gun and ammunition. That's all. That doesn't make me un-American. That doesn't mean I don't believe in the Constitution. That doesn't mean I hate George Washington. I realize it will be difficult to form policies that balances the needs of our community, but it can be done. We just have to try.
I also want us to take care of the mentally ill in our communities. We closed down our institutions because they were worse than prisons. But we failed to provide a safety net for these members of society, who are the most fragile and the most at risk.
I've been a fraud. But I won't be one anymore. I'm sorry it took me this long. But from now on, I will not stay silent when someone says we don't need to reform our gun laws. Our laws our broken. Our community is broken. These gunmen are giving us a powerful and clear message
I also want us to take care of the mentally ill in our communities. We closed down our institutions because they were worse than prisons. But we failed to provide a safety net for these members of society, who are the most fragile and the most at risk.
I've been a fraud. But I won't be one anymore. I'm sorry it took me this long. But from now on, I will not stay silent when someone says we don't need to reform our gun laws. Our laws our broken. Our community is broken. These gunmen are giving us a powerful and clear message
We can't keep going like this any longer. Something needs to change. We need to change
Christina Hall Davis is a former Chronicle reporter.
I couldn't agree more with you, Christina. Way up here in Willimantic, my children, through their friendships, are already being directly impacted by this senseless tragedy. The ripples will be extremely wide spread when all is said and done -- and who knows how many more will eventually become mentally ill because of their relationship and closenes to this event? How many marriages, which generally do not survive the death of a young child, will be broken to smitherenes by this tragic event?
ReplyDeleteI say this as someone who has both successfully hunted (I killed a single pheasant years ago) and who has shot skeet. It's the Second Amendment that is underlying our culture which is the root cause of such tragedies -- and the NRA lobby for seeing to it that nothing is done to change the situation.
Just a little while ago, I read online that the gunman's mother "was an avid gun collector who enjoyed going to the local shooting range to shoot and who taught her children to shoot when they were young." Surely, she had a gun safe as most resposnsible collectors do. If she did, it failed to protect her and the others.
The gunman's brother is reported as having said his brother had mental health problems; community members apparently failed to notice them.
As someone who also has a mental health diagnosis, I can attest to the fact that they current mental health system is broken every bit as much, if not more than, the country's and the state's gun control laws. I managed to get better but it took almost 2 decades to do so. I got better despite the system, not because of it.
Christina, you write, "We are pretending that we live in a civilized society, but what kind of society has these types of unspeakable horrors occur again and again and again and again and does nothing?" Who was it who said t something to the effect that you can measure the character of a society by how it treats its elderly and its most vulnerable citizens?
THAT is what needs changing and now I'm going to write to my congresspoeple to air my views in the hope of helping to bring about some changes.
Whi will join me????
Jean Henderson
My apologies for having my emotions prevent adequate proof reading -- but I think the message itself will still be clear.
ReplyDeleteI have just written to the Connecticut delegation. You've made excellent points Jean. Thankyou
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