A problem that should be easy to solve.
We live in a new world. A world where everyday we say, “That’s amazing, that’s unbelievable, that can’t be true”… and yet it is. This is a world which redefines the ways in which we speak and act toward each other, and the ways in which we hide ourselves from situations and experiences we never thought possible, things we thought we would never have to deal with in this life timer now a daily reality.
We have gotten to a point where the smallest riff is a means for anger and violence. In this country disagreeing with someone could lead to a violent feud, shootings and even death. Polarization is more dramatic in our time than in any other since the Civil War…and many feel that is where we are headed.
In our country one side is opposed to the other side, although reason and civility stand on that other side. The politics of ignorance is far greater than the politics of good sense. The intelligencia are demonized while the ignorant become louder, bolder and more ridiculous. Education is questioned and challenged. School budgets are slashed and the world is merely treading water before the ’other shoe drops’.
We must all understand that the answers to any of these problems are not simple and are certainly not forthcoming. In a culture that says “For me, and right now” that is a bitter pill to swallow. A great majority of our citizens are for the banning of assault rifles, yet when children are murdered in their class rooms, other segments call for more guns to protect the innocent. When the drug epidemic has taken millions of lives, still drug companies soldier on. When the politicians speak the radio gets shut off, when the pastor preaches our attention resorts to that week’s football game. Truth is a forgotten concept.
No one has THE answer, simply because there isn’t one, but collectively there are small inroads made, or to be made.
Here’s uninteresting idea. Let the President create an executive order banning assault rifles. Then let it go to congress for a vote. The politicians who vote against it should have their names on a full page ad in the New York Times accusing them of complicity in the murder of children.
Here is another idea. Ban the Gun Lobby and the Gun companies from feeding money to sympathetic politicians. After all, you can’t take money from a drug cartel, why should you take it from a place that sanctions murder. I know these ideas will not sit will with the Right Wingers, but who cares. If we don’t stand up for these causes now, soon we will have nothing to stand up for at all.
Again, if not the safety of our children the equitable treatment of our citizens, the concern for the intra-governmental chaos that we are bombarded with, the fair and equal justice for the downtrodden, and the stewardship of the planet, what else is there really to think about and work towards.
Listening to the other side is a good start. Debating what to do, and holding the government’s feet to the fire is another way of progressing. Allowing ignorance in the name of freedom to overwhelm us is the first thing we need to stop.
Bringing back the concepts of facts, research and concern are the touchstones of recreating what we have long ago broken. Whether we in our generation see results is not the question, but rather what will we leave after our passing. Do we really want our children to inherit THIS?
