Shoot

Shoot

I apologize for not blogging sooner.  Those of you who keep up with me on Facebook are aware of my brother Tom’s long and continuing recovery from a fall.  I’ve also been distracted by my job search and the hurly burly and travel of the holiday season.  I’m still in Lincoln City, OR but plan to return to Omaha at the end of the month so I can find a job before my severance ends.

The events of this week have caused me to take up my pen (laptop?) once again.

This post was heavily influenced by Rev. Victoria Weinstein’s sermon from this morning, http://tinyurl.com/2bzrool and by Keith Olbermann’s special comment from last night, http://tinyurl.com/39644hk

But this post is dedicated to my friend Joan Brubaker, not only for being a sane and wise voice in this world, but for nudging me until I started blogging again.

Shoot

This week I was getting a cut and color at the place I am supposed to relax, the salon.  I was relaxing, reading my Tweets while the talented Jeremy worked on my hair.  Suddenly, I felt that dreadful iciness in the pit of my stomach as a read these words from someone in Omaha:  “Millard South shooter still at large.

Millard South?  As in the school just two miles away from where my brother and his family live and two miles away from Millard West where my nephew Bob is a junior?  Millard South? Nice school in the suburbs that counts Heisman trophy winner Eric Crouch among the alumni?  Millard South?

First thoughts:  Is Bob safe?  Were other schools involved?  How many wounded or killed?  What the hell has happened in Omaha? 

I was quickly able to contact Bob through text messages, yes, he was fine, his school, along with all the Millard Schools, were in lockdown.  It was scary, but he was never at risk.

I also learned the details as everyone else did. A 17 year old senior Robert Butler, Jr., the son of an Omaha Police officer, took his father’s gun and fatally shot the vice-principal, Vicki Kaspar and seriously wounded the principal, Craig Case.   Butler was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound inside his car in a parking lot about a mile from the school by Omaha police 45 minutes after the attack at the school.  Butler had been suspended by Dr. Kaspar that morning for driving on the football field during the Christmas break.  Both Dr. Case and Dr. Kaspar sound like the kind of educators we can’t afford to lose, utterly dedicated to their students.

While Omahans near and far were mourning and trying to make sense out of senselessness, another shooting grabbed the entire nation’s attention.  Yesterday, Congresswoman Gabrielle Gifford was shot in Tucson, Arizona at a “Congress on Your Corner” event at a Safeway along with 19 others.  Gifford is fighting for her life at a Tucson hospital.  Six other were killed including Federal Judge John Roll and Christine Taylor Green, 9 years old.  Christine, who had just been elected to her school’s student council, was interested in politics, went to event with a neighbor.  Link to a Washington Post blog that details the lives of the six who were murdered: http://tinyurl.com/2ch94mt Everyone of them, someone we can’t afford to lose.  The shooter, Jared Lee Loughner, 22 displayed a troubled history with rambling and incoherent posts to the Internet warning of “mind control.”  Documents were found in Loughner’s home in which he claimed his “assassination” of Giffords.

What can we learn from this circle of sin and misery and death?  What have we ever learned?  In the sermon I linked to above, we are called as people of faith to speak out oon these issues.  Here is what my poor thoughts are.

First, we have to stop stigmatizing mental illness and its treatment in this country.  The shooters in these cases were both kids from nice suburbs.  Butler apparently showed few signs of trouble other than vandalizing the football field.   That seems more like a teenage prank than an indicator of anti-social behavior.  (Full disclosure:  When I was in college, I vandalized a golf green after a few too many.  I have never shot or attacked anyone, but I was never found out, either.)

Loughner, however exhibited numerous signs of trouble, including paranoid ramblings on the Internet and troubling behavior and statements in his college classes.

Would either of these tragedies have been avoided if either young man had received help?  I don’t know.  The problem is we may never know.

Second, we must stop using violent rhetoric in all political discourse.  “Don’t retreat, reload” “Second Amendment remedies” and putting bull’s-eyes or target sights on top of political districts or politicians faces.  This kind of rhetoric, wherever it is found on the political spectrum needs to be unacceptable.  (See Keith Olbermann’s special comment on this, above.)  We cannot or and we should not try to regulate free speech, but we as individuals and as a society must repudiate and politely correct those who violate this standard.  It cannot be a law; it must be a standard of human decency.  Did violent rhetoric contribute to either of these tragedies?  I don’t know.  The problem is we may never know.

Third, we must do something about guns in our society.  79 Americans die every day from gun violence.  That is 13 Tucson shootings, every day!   In 1998, 3,792 American children and teens (19 and under) died by gunfire in murders, suicides and unintentional shootings. That's more than 10 young people a day.  That is a Columbine every two days!     We don’t notice these shootings because they come in single spies, not in battalions.  We need to start paying attention because it has to stop.  In my home town of Omaha, 44 people were murdered in 2008, the last year that statistics are available for from the Omaha Police department.  May of these were victims of gang violence including drive by shootings in Hispanic or African American neighborhoods, noted by the local media, but becoming a run of the mill occurrence in Omaha and in other communities.

Humorist Andy Borowitz posted to Twitter today, “I make the modest proposal that it should be harder to get a gun than a Facebook account.”  I would make a less modest proposal that it should be as hard to own and operate a gun as it is to own and operate a car.  You cannot drive a car in this country without passing a test to prove you know how to use it safely.  You cannot drive a car in this country unless you carry liability insurance to protect those you may injure with that car.  Right now, through the “gun show” loophole anyone can go to a gun show and buy a gun without a background check.  People who own guns in homes with children should be required to keep those weapons in a gun safe or use a trigger lock.   Robert Butler, the son of an Omaha police officer, took his father’s service weapon from an unlocked closet in the forty minutes his father was out of the house.  According to an anonymous Arizona law enforcement source, it seems that Jared Loughner purchased his gun legally.  Would tighter gun regulations including gun locks have stopped Loughner or Butler.  I don’t know.  The problem is we may never know.  Would it stop future tragedies?  I sincerely believe it would.

Finally, the small piece of hope from these events:  There are always more heroes than villains.  Hundreds of doctors, nurses, EMT’s and medical professionals used all their skill to try and save the victims of these shootings.  Loughner probably would have killed many more if a wounded woman grabbed his magazine as he tried to reload.  His next magazine failed and he was tackled by two other men who subdued him until police were on the scene.  Daniel Hernandez, a twenty year old intern with Giffords, ran toward the bullets when the shooting started and staunched her wounds, elevated her head so she could breath, and kept talking to her.  Dorwin Stoddard, killed in Tucson, blocked the gunfire with his body, saving his the life of his beloved wife.  Thousands have and will continue to gather at memorial services, vigils and prayer services.  Millions more have and will mourn and offer prayers and condolences and will observe the national moment of silence tomorrow.

Perhaps, these people are the people we should be celebrating instead of the actors and athletes, socialites and loudmouths we usually celebrate in this country.  Perhaps we can’t do it nationally, but we certainly could start noticing, thanking and celebrating the people in our communities who can and do make a difference, who make our lives better through their vocations and avocations. 

Would it make a difference in these shootings?  Probably wouldn’t have.  Could it make a difference in our world if we start today?  Oh yes.

Blessings,

Cindy

I have used numerous news sources including AOL News, Omaha.com, MSNBC, CNN, ABC News, The Washington Post, The New York Times and Huffington Post.  Handgun statistics come from StopHandgunViolence.com and the Omaha Police Department.