I should be doing promotion, but last month’s post about gun violence and pregnancy could have easily been written this month, only with different links to different real life horror stories. Book banning efforts have also taken a darker turn, and I’ve obviously got a lot to say about that. Here’s a rundown:
- A Florida man tried to run another Florida man off the road. The latter shot at the former, but hit a 5 year old girl. The former shot several rounds, and hit a 14 year old girl. Both were charged with attempted murder but charges were dropped against the first under Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law because attempting to shoot at another moving vehicle from your moving vehicle – endangering everyone including yourself – is somehow considered reasonable self-defense. Someone argued the only thing wrong is hitting a little girl (oh, is that all?) as if hitting the target wouldn’t have caused a big multi-car accident. I don’t think it takes a fancy law degree to see what a dangerous precedent they’ve set.
- A man shot a teen who went to the wrong house. Some woman asked how anyone can blame him with all the violence we see in the world. He IS the violence, lady…or bot – sometimes feels like distinction without a difference. Someone should write a book (Philip K. Dick already did).
- A man shot and killed a woman when her friends pulled into his driveway.
- A man shot two cheerleaders, one critically, after another almost got into the wrong car. One reason among many people should not defend shooting presumed thieves.
- A man shot a six year old girl, her father, and another neighbor after a ball rolled into his yard.
Getting real tired of paranoid men shooting people. A big part of the problem is fear mongering by politicians and the media, with thinly veiled racist tropes dating back to Reconstruction. Former VP Mike Pence said, “I can’t help but suspect that this recent spate of tragedies is evidence of the fear that so many Americans are feeling about the crime wave besetting this country”. There is no crime wave, but shooting deaths are rising, especially in states that continue to remove restrictions. It’s now the leading cause of death among children (including accidental shootings and suicide).
The more machinery allows us to distance ourselves from others – be it guns, cars, or even (especially?) computers – the less careful we seem to become with each others’ lives. I don’t live in fear of car accidents, but fatal car accidents are twice as common as homicides. I live in even less fear of crime, and I won’t introduce a daily danger into my life and the lives of my family out of paranoia. Meanwhile there’s big strapping men who don’t feel safe unless they’re strapped. I don’t oppose responsible gun ownership. I just don’t trust fearful people to be responsible. I trust people who are quicker to defend their guns than people even less.
Many people who want a broad interpretation of the Second Amendment do not feel the same about the First. They’ve moved from book bans to trying to do away with school and public libraries, whose services extend well beyond books and include things like computer access or job and healthcare assistance for the poor. A school administrator in Virginia said libraries were unneeded because children can access books on their smartphones. Some children are too young for smartphones. Others don’t even have smartphones. The real goal is maintaining social hierarchies. It’s not about “parent rights” when a few are given power over the many – just like “school choice” is about funding the educations of children from affluent families who can already afford private school at the expense of children from poor families left with even fewer choices.
That’s why many people say it’s not about the books. It’s also an attack on what books (and libraries) provide, like resources that can lift people from poverty. And not just literacy and information, but also insight, empathy, comfort. Even discomfort. We need material that challenges us, too. Growth doesn’t happen in our comfort zone. But some people don’t want to confront ambivalence or unpleasant realities. They’d rather hide the truth, and replace it with a tidy narrative even as they deny others any sources of comfort or catharsis. Representation (and participation) in the arts helps people feel seen and less alone.
I continue to question the sincerity of people’s concern for the unborn when there’s so little regard for life in every other context. There’s been a lot forced pregnancies in which the fetus has anencephaly or other fatal defects over the years, and this is the latest. Anti-abortion activists celebrate Texas law working as intended. And while Florida is fine with minimizing children as collateral damage of the Second Amendment, they decided an embryo has more civil liberties than the person it’s inside. Voters in other states pushed back against regressive legislation. Maybe the tide is turning, but it’s shame how many have been harmed or forced to share their pain.
