Too many mass shootings have happened this year. One is too many—and any number is dizzying and makes everything else seem unimportant. Issues of life and death put everything else in perspective. Sometimes I don’t feel inspired to write. Sometimes I have so many feelings it is impossible to write about them. Why bother?
The essay is a grapple, a cheerfully desperate attempt to drape words on thoughts and emotions mostly too vast for words . . .
— Brian Doyle (1956-2017) American writer
In writing blogs, my goal is to be upbeat and inspiring. I strive to encourage the ideals of —Music. Life. Creativity. Sadly, too many people have their lives cut short and cannot live to enjoy music or be creative. I recently read an opinion column in The Washington Post about the mass shooting at the outlet mall in Allen, Texas. Columnist Karen Attiah wrote:
I was witnessing in real time the variety of social deaths that don’t get captured in victim counts or statistics. How do you capture the social death of someone who will be forever traumatized by seeing children bleed out on a sidewalk? How do you capture the social injury to a child who is now too afraid to go to a mall to hang out with her friends? Or, if the Allen outlets close for good, the loss of a place for families to spend time together?
. . . And is it not a type of social death for a young man to now be so distrustful of Texans that he would contemplate buying a gun? And being trained to potentially kill?
I have a friend who has moved back to Alabama from Texas. She and her family used to frequent the mall where this shooting happened. Some of her Texas friends had just been there and on any given Saturday afternoon my friend and her family might have been there. I have a friend whose hometown is Dadeville, Alabama where six youth shot and killed four youth and injured thirty-two. I have a friend in Atlanta whose doctor’s office was the one where a gunman killed a 38-year-old mother of two and wounded others there. This is all close to home. These are people I know.
Last week, a co-worker’s child said that day at school they heard what sounded like shots. (It later turned out to be a car backfiring.) They all hid and activated their active shooter drill plan. She is eight years old. When asked how she felt, she said she was scared.
There are no words to express the depth of sorrow I feel. I like to think rational discussion is an option. Sadly, polarization and fear rules. How much rational thought does it take to know that guns are made to either kill or wound? There is no in between. Yes, I believe people have the right to legally own guns if they choose to do so. However, something needs to be engrained in the hearts and minds of people that anger or spur of the moment decisions do not need to involve guns. It is a deadly mix.
Decisions made with guns are permanent. Lives are taken. Families broken. These things can’t be undone. With each mass shooting and with every murdered human being, there is a profound loss that is more than mere numbers or statistics. Our society’s soul is being maimed and killed while we all watch. It is an agonizing, gut-wrenching death.
In my opinion, excessive adoration of guns is epidemic. I fear that it is pointless to write or try to convince anyone of anything. Emotions do not have rational thought or moral compass. In my optimistic moments, I believe that people possess the ability to think of the consequences of their actions and that as a society we can examine what we do that tacitly allows mass shootings to happen.
At the end of the article Karen stops to talk with a local artist who had come to assemble eight crosses which he decorated with flowers, ribbons, stuffed animals, and the Texas flag. It was a memorial and a way for people to process their emotions. She asked him whether he was a gun owner or would ever think about getting one. “I’ve never handled a gun,” he said. He shook his head and pointed to the paintbrushes he had strapped to his chest. “These are my weapons.”
In such ugly times, the only true protest is beauty.
— Phil Ochs (1940-1976) American songwriter and protest singer
With every mass shooting we become desensitized. We learn to drown out the news along with our emotions. Because it begins to feel like we can’t do anything we ask, “Why bother?”
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.
— Margaret Mead (1901-1978) American cultural anthropologist
Why bother? Because we must.
I think love is the lifting force in the human condition. I think you see someone loving on their child, and it moves you, and you can’t help it. It rings a bell inside of us that elevates us as human beings, and I treasure that.
— David Crosby (1941-2023) American musician and singer-songwriter
I am not arrogant enough to assume I know what everyone else can or should do. There are many facets to the problem. It is not simply about guns or people—it is both. I do know that if we could find that deep, visceral love for humanity . . . maybe we could muster up the emotional maturity to find a way to stop these needless murders.
As a society, we must be willing to look straight at the problem and be willing to do something. Instead of arguing and throwing up our hands in despair—we need to seek workable, tangible solutions—which probably include some regulations on gun ownership along with easy access to help for those with mental health issues.
All I know is that as a writer, I can’t keep silent. As an artist, I must create. Why bother? Because love, beauty, and creativity are what will keep our society alive.
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