I Used to Be Patriotic
I’m a Fourth of July baby. Well, almost. I was born on the 3rd but close enough. I’ve been red, white and blue since I can remember. I was still essentially a kid during the first Gulf War and even though I had no understanding of what that war was all about, I proudly wore my flag t-shirt and got teary-eyed when they would play “Proud to Be An American” on the radio. I even decorated my freshman dorm room in vintage americana. It was my thing.
But today. Wow.
Ten dead in Oregon.
I’ve written about this before. Twice. I have nothing new or original to say. But I sat in Isaiah’s Kindergarten classroom tonight for Back to School night and his teacher showed us where they would huddle if there was a shooter in the building.
In retrospect Sandy Hook marked the end of the US gun control debate. Once America decided killing children was bearable, it was over.
— Dan Hodges (@DPJHodges) June 19, 2015
I think President Obama sums it up for us.
“We spent over a $1 trillion and passed countless laws and devote entire agencies to preventing terrorist attacks on our soil, and rightfully so. And yet, we have a Congress that explicitly blocks us from even collecting data on how we could potentially reduce gun deaths. How can that be?
This is a political choice that we make, to allow this to happen every few months in America. We, collectively, are answerable to those families who lose their loved ones because of our inaction.
When Americans are killed in mine disasters, we work to make mines safer. When Americans are killed in floods and hurricanes, we make communities safer. When roads are unsafe, we fix them to reduce auto fatalities. We have seatbelt laws because we know it saves lives.
So the notion that gun violence is somehow different, that our freedom and Constitution prohibits any modest regulation of how we use a deadly weapon … doesn’t make sense.” –President Obama
I used to be patriotic. It was, in hindsight, a blind, unthinking patriotism. And I’m definitely not feeling it today.
You say you have nothing new or original to say…well, when you run out of words, what’s next? I’m not asking as a critique, I’m asking because I’ve said all the words myself, there are no new arguments – we’re left with nothing more than one of our presidential candidates saying, “stuff happens.” I’m very tired of “our thoughts and prayers go out….” (I’m certainly not saying prayer is unimportant)
I work in a school district in Oregon, and will have my two young daughters in school someday. Maybe I’ll have more words then, and hopefully words about how different things are.
Great question, Tyson. Yeah, what’s next? I guess, in addition to aggravating for justice as best we can, we hold fast to hope — for your two daughters and my two sons — that we will be able to do just that: tell them how different things are someday.