Enough

Enough. Here’s my manifesto. As a parent, grandparent, voter and writer, my perspective is it’s time to address the plague of hate-based gun violence. When I turn on the television news or open the newspaper every morning, I cringe at the latest examples of domestic terrorism. And that’s what it is. These aren’t acts caused by an invasion of foreign aliens. No, these are home-grown, primarily young white men who are alienated from their communities and join a tribe spewing hate of others. We need to address the causes of this plague. Let me frame this in the terms used by crime writers: motive, means and opportunity. These perpetrators are motivated by hate. Their means are readily-available assault weapons with large magazines. The opportunity is everywhere since we are an open society. The solution can be framed in these same three terms. We must embrace a motive of making this a better place for our children and grandchildren through inclusive communities that embrace diversity and take action. We have a means of using our democratic right to vote; to vote against the politicians who hide behind donations from the gun lobby, say nothing and do nothing, and to vote for politicians who are willing to listen to the will of the people and take action to stop this plague. Our opportunity is to make this a country where our children and grandchildren don’t have to fear going to school, to a store, to a concert, to a festival, to a place of worship or out on a street because they could be cut down by a hate-based terrorist with an assault weapon. We’ve heard of the police responding within thirty seconds, but still not being able to prevent carnage. Even if we had police on every corner this would not prevent these tragedies. Thoughts and prayers are not enough. We must get to the root cause to eliminate the hate and the too easy access to assault weapons. Many of our leaders are complicit in not standing against ideologies such as white supremacy and not addressing gun violence. Let’s use the power of our vote to state clearly that this is enough.