Friday, June 19, 2015

WE’VE COME SO FAR; WE HAVE SO FAR TO GO


 Since the shooting at Virginia Tech on April 16, 2007, approximately 142 have been killed or wounded on school grounds in the U.S. And those figures only scratch the surface of the total number of gun-related deaths in this country. Now, nine people have been gunned down at a prayer meeting in Charleston, South Carolina. The slaughter goes on.

Innocent people are mowed down in places of learning and houses of prayer; we wring our hands, cry, and pray. And, we do nothing to keep guns out of the hands of people who are a threat to themselves and others, terrorists, convicted felons, and domestic abusers. Our legislators cut funds for mental heath care despite the near unanimous opinion by mental health care experts that we could dramatically cut all crimes if we put a major effort behind improving mental health care.

No one ever speaks of the rights of people who have been murdered. Instead, the dialogue turns into a feeding frenzy of emotions hindering and not helping tackle the root causes of this violence. Sadly, in the case of the Charleston slaughter the root cause was racist hatred. I am at a complete and utter loss for words. I thought, as a nation, we had come so far, but I was wrong, so terribly wrong. We have so far to go.

The greatest nation in the world does not sit still while students are used for target practice by those who are threat to society; nor do the citizens of a great nation remain silent while people are murdered at a prayer meeting. Charleston has shown that demanding action on the part of our elected officials to help stop these massacres is an imperative.