Just yesterday, I was reading an article about the tragic shooting of several children in an Amish school. This, on the heels of two other school shootings last week, one of which resulted in the death of a student, the other in the death of a principal.
I don’t know much about Amish society, I admit. I know they are peaceful folk who live quiet, simple lives, and generally do not agree with ownership of technology though they will use it on occasion.
Personally, I was blown away by the reactions of the Amish to the tragic violence that invaded their lives:
“The hurt is very great,” she said. “But they don’t balance the hurt with hate.”
<snip>
The Amish also have been reaching out to the family of the gunman, Charles Carl Roberts IV, 32, who committed suicide during the attack. Dwight Lefever, a family spokesman, said an Amish neighbor comforted the Roberts family hours after the shooting and extended forgiveness.
Amazing. If only those of all (or no) religious faiths were capable in their hearts of this kind of compassion and understanding, perhaps there would finally be peace.
At the end of the article (I don’t have a link to the exact one I was reading), there was a question posed to the reader : What scares you the most about the recent spate of school shootings? For a moment, I sat there thinking, before realizing that what scares me the most is almost surely not what scares most people reading that.
I don’t know how exactly to summarize, but part of what really scares me is this:
In the wake of school shootings in Wisconsin, Colorado and Pennsylvania during the last two weeks, a state legislator says he plans to introduce legislation that would allow teachers, principals, administrators and other school personnel to carry concealed weapons.
Yes, that is just what we need, genius. MORE fucking guns. Now people who want to shoot up a school won’t even have to sneak one in themselves, they can just borrow one from the teachers’ lounge.
Perhaps we should install razorwire fences along the perimeters of our schools too. Oh, and guard towers with snipers. To keep the kids safe, of course.
What the hell is wrong with these people? Will they not be satisfied until we are all holed up, fearful in our own solitary prisons we will call ‘home’?
These school shootings, and this Wisconsin lawmaker’s reaction is exactly what pisses me off about the ongoing War on Terror™. The reactions that we allow our society to have, the reactions that are dictated to us by those we call leaders are exactly the reactions the terrorists want (both those who blow up buildings, and those who shoot up schools).
This is not for me. I refuse to live in a world full of good people, cowering in fear of the few bad ones.
You really need to become a regular diarist. Just sayin’
Great job, señor.
Thank you for the great compliment, ManEe š
I suspect I’ll have more time (and inspiration) to write now as fall turns to winter, and winter turns to more winter.
And I just saw the legislator interviewed on the news. Craziness.
Just looking at his picture on MSNBC, he looks like the type of man who really does believe that the solution to violence is…more violence.
Where does it stop?
Oh Goody! Never thought I would get excited over winter before. š Manny’s right though, keep up writing the diaries. Thanks for this one! š
Thanks Cake š
I just put another up here.
Reminds me of another bill I was reading about this week that would make sure that every school that receives federal funds (i.e., all public schools) to have in place a means of strip searching all the kids and that the schools would be protected from any lawsuits resulting from a strip search. Mind you, they would also not need probable cause. I don’t remember all of the details, but it was outrageous.
I heard about allowing teachers to carry concealed weapons and I’m with you. The last thing I want in my kid’s school is a gun or random strip searches!
With all this fear being shoved down our throats, it’s no wonder people are going batty.
I read about that earlier this week as well over on dKos. Here’s the diary.
I just don’t get it. I mean some of these people must be parents, right? Will they feel safer with their kids subject to random strip searches by teachers packing heat?
don’t think that THEIR children will be subject to those intrusions. Just everyone else’s.
And therein lies the inherent flaw in all Republican thinking.
Besides, their children probably all go to private school anyway. They probably never even mingle with the adolescent plebeians.
I’m thinking about the abusive 5th grade teacher we had to deal with a few years ago (still employed by the school district, although the subject of many compalints and at least 1 successful lawsuit), and imagining that little Napoleonic troll with a gun.
No effing way.
“We have nothing to fear…but fear itself.” And that was at a time of war.
Now, though, our “leaders” encourage us to hate and fear those who are “different” from us “real Americans”…
Yep. They’ve discovered how useful it is as a means of keeping a hold on power. It’s really quite a brilliant, albeit evil, plan.
“…the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country.”
-Herman Goering
The Rovians are masters of Republispeak and fearmongering. Why not, it’s worked so well for other totaltarian regimes.
Great diary, thanks.
The thing that strikes those of us outside the US about these tragedies is that guns are so ingrained in American culture that no major political figure is prepared to stand up and advocate serious gun control. That would be political death, or at least the NRA has everyone convinced it would be.
It seems kind of obvious to non-Americans that having fewer or even no guns in the community decreases the risk that these weapons will fall into the wrong hands or be used in the heat of the moment. The notion that you need a gun to defend yourself seems to ignore the possibility that someone else might use your gun against you, or that you could accidentally shoot yourself. And the idea that you might use it to defend yourself against tyrannical government, which I have even seen expressed at BT, is frankly laughable.
Right on. And I always hear the argument ‘Well, if someone really wants a gun, they’ll find a way to get one’. Well yeah, probably. But how many of the deaths attributable to guns here are that premeditated?
I don’t think (most) people buy guns because they want to kill someone. I think people buy guns, then end up killing someone because the gun is easily accessible. Whether it be by accident, in a fit of rage, or whatever, had that gun not been there we’d have one more person alive and one less murderer in the world.
Superb diary..
Reminds me of Moore’s “Bowling for Columbine” when the guy says “if more guns made people safer, then America would be the safest country on the planet”. Obviously it is not.
I agree that less guns would be good for America. But again as Moore pointed out, Canada has lots of guns and a lot less of the problems.
The true root of this is fear – many, many Americans spend most of their lives in fear. Fear coupled with despair that life will never get better PLUS guns is one dangerous formula.
Pax
Wow, extremely well said Soj.
As canberra boy pointed out, having a politician speak about less guns is akin to political suicide right now. Perhaps if we can instead start by allaying some of the fear and offering more hope for the future, then less guns will be a more viable message because the perceived ‘need’ for them will lessen.
I do not know if any political figures have noted how the Amish have responded, nor whether any have spoken out in admiration as you have. I tend to doubt it, but that could be my cynicism.
Those in office or seeking office may not be able to focus on gun control cause it is such an inflammatory and distorted issue. But those who really want to change how we live together could use the Amish response as the foundation for some important messages.
You provided a powerful foundation statement:
I would amend your position statement slightly to: “I refuse to live in a world full of good people, cowering in fear of the few badly damaged ones.
Please, if you haven’t, share your diary with your politic representatives and as a LTE. Maybe, just maybe, you will get some to open their minds to other possibilities.
Thanks ejmw for taking the time to share this – I would have missed it just following the news headlines.
I keep thinking of those lovely words of the NRA: An Armed Society is a Polite Society.
Oh yeah. Right .
Just like I’m certain those Amish teachers would have “taken out” this man if they had been packing heat, as they surely would have had their been such a law.
Where do these stupid ideas come from? As a former public school teacher, I can think of few things worse than having a loaded weapon in a classroom. And having had the distinct displeasure of teaching children who had parents and siblings die in front of their eyes by being shot (in one case, my student was the accidental shooter), I can well imagine the anxiety that having guns around would produce. What we would have is more children dead, of that I am quite certain.
Where do these stupid ideas come from? Try the Old Testament “eye for an eye” and other miscellaneous teachings about “Vengence is mine!” , interpreted literally, by the kind of fundamentalist christians we’ve elected to office, and who are using that power to live out PLAY own religious beliefs. Of course violence will go on the rise, when the leadership of a country role models violence and revenge as the only way to keep us safe. It gives explicit permission to those prone to violence to just have at it.
I think it is even deeper than that, scribe. There is something built in to many (indeed, probably most) people that calls for vengeance when one is wronged. Perhaps it is tied to some primative survival instinct. I don’t know.
I know it is something that I have had to, and continue to, unlearn. Revenge does not bring satisfaction, only more trouble and emptiness.
I heard that teaser all day on the television. My first reaction was to go berserk over it until I realized that was what I was supposed to do. There is no show unless we have gladiators for opposing sides in the arena. The talk of arming pilots went nowhere because we’re not really all insane.
“Lawmakers” don’t know how to do anything else except try to use their power. We’re supposed to be at war – to arms, to arms!
This is what the Amish are teaching us. They are acting like human beings, while we are supposed to be amazed at their behavior. What a bizarre society America is!
I keep thinking, “There is no PAC money in forgiveness.”
Fear is the biggest prison.
Refuse fear. It’s one way to protest this regime.
We all seem in agreement here. Says alot for our side doesn’t it? We are the side that wants to protect our children from pedophiles in the House and schools and batshit crazies teaching our children with guns. Outstanding diary. Keep up the great writing.