I find it difficult to watch the news some days. One of those days was last week when just before retiring to bed I saw the sad news of yet another mass shooting. This one was at Michigan State University. I avoided the news the next day. I had the same reaction after Sandy Hook, Parkland, Uvalde, Buffalo, and virtually every other highly publicized mass shooting. It is both maddening and painful. The senselessness of it all. The horror of that moment of the heinous crime and the distraught families left in the wake of tragedy.
Hypothetical questions are often only moderately useful. However, I have one that swirls in and out of my consciousness. It will not be silent and refuses to leave me alone. It addresses legislators and politicians who refuse to act on this scourge of death and fear that plagues our nation and is the leading cause of death among our children. The question? If you (insert name or office holder) (Senator, U.S. Representative, State Senator, State Representative) (Mike Braun, Jim Banks, Travis Holdman, Matt Lehman) knew that your vote or inaction on this matter would result in the death of your own child or grandchild tomorrow, and voting for common sense gun laws would save their life, would you change your vote?
Of course, the answer would be yes. But here is the problem. It is highly unlikely that the victim will be their child or grandchild, rather it will be someone else’s child. Someone else’s parent, grandparent, friend. Evidently that is just the price to be paid for putting one’s political career ahead of another’s life. All the while these legislators love to tout their Christian values, sit tall in their Sunday pew, sing hymns of praise and redemption, as the gun deaths continue unabated. Have you seen the ubiquitous ads prior to every election? The proud conflation of love for Jesus and devotion to 2nd Amendment extremism? No Atticus Finch types here. No profiles in courage. Mere fidelity to reelection.
Remember the scene from “The Godfather” of Michael Corleone’s mafioso family celebrating the sacrament of baptism of his child in the ornate church juxtaposed against the criminal and violent scenes of death wrought and ongoing from the family business? The maudlin organ music plays throughout; the hypocrisy flagrantly self-evident. The major difference in our current state of inaction on gun legislation and “The Godfather” scene is that in our denial of responsibility for establishing this gun culture is that far more people die and die every day than died in the movie.
You would be mistaken to believe I do not like legislators. I believe public service should be honored and viewed as necessary and often sacrificial in nature. However, the public demands honest and ethical service to those they represent. I refuse to believe that all the politicians who stand in the way of gun reform feel their stand is the proper moral choice. I imagine many are conflicted. At least I would hope it is so.
I do not know if meaningful change will occur in my lifetime. I do believe though that it will come. It must. And it will require someone or many in the Republican opposition to find the courage to speak that truth that is obvious to a clear majority of U.S. citizens. Just as it took a southern politician and former segregationist in the name of Lyndon Johnson to push through civil rights legislation, or for George W. Bush to lead the fight against AIDS, we need the courage of citizens to speak up. We need the courage of ministers and faith leaders to speak clearly from the pulpit. We need politicians willing to risk political aspirations for the sake of children’s lives. I truly do not believe I am overstating the case.
After purposely looking away from the news for a day, or two, I was forced out of necessity to view the pictures and once hopeful profiles of the newly deceased. Whether it is the fresh bright faces of the innocent children and teachers of Uvalde and Sandy Hook, the heartbroken parents, or the beautiful photos of yesterday’s MSU 20-year-olds never to be 21, like most of you I grieve quietly as I recognize the horrors foisted upon loved ones.
Here’s The Thing: It is one thing to sacrifice for the life of a loved one. It is quite another thing to sacrifice for the lives of those who will never know you. Nor will they know the sacrifices you have made. To take no action to curb gun violence is a sin of omission. It is a sin just the same. While I am not qualified to quote the Bible to you the reader, I am going to guess that these truths are stated somewhere and somehow in that august book. To be silent is to be complicit.
ken.ballinger@yahoo.com
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Editor’s Note: This is one of a series of articles written by a group of retired and current teachers — Ken Ballinger, Billy Kreigh, and Anna Spalding. Their intent is to spur discussions at the dinner table and elsewhere. You may also voice your thoughts and reactions via The News-Banner’s letters to editor.
