Part of me sees no point in writing in anything new following the Orlando shooting. I should just cut and paste similar columns from the past. Lord knows there are enough of them.
And there will be more. Don’t doubt that. As we investigate and clean up and mourn following the Orlando shooting, all we are really doing is marking time until the next time someone decides to shoot up large numbers of people. To deny that is folly.
We go through this again and again, folks. Someone shoots a lot of people to death. Thoughts and prayers are issued. The usual people say the usual things. Then we wait until the next one, not bothering to wonder if they will happen, but merely when and where the next one will be. A shopping mall? A school? How long till someone opens up at a ballgame?
To debate whether or not the Second Amendment is the problem does not substantively address the issue. Lots of countries allow guns, but we are the only ones with an epidemic of mass shootings.
The salient point is we have violent citizens in our country. Why? Because we have a violent government. This nation has been at war every day since 1989 and we are paying the price for that, now.
We have a violent world and country because America has a violent government.
Had we been at peace every day since 1989 would Orlando have happened?
No, it would not have happened. 9/11 would not have happened, either and the Orlando shooter would not have claimed solidarity with ISIS because ISIS would not exist. US intervention, unwanted US intervention, has only caused death, destruction and misery, both here and abroad. And terrorists hell-bent on America’s destruction, of course.
If America had spent the past few decades allowing other nations the dignity of conducting their affairs without interference from us, this world and this country would have been a more peaceful place.
Sure, there would probably still be conflict in the Middle East. They’ve been fighting over that area – the crossroads of three continents and countless races – since time immemorial. We aren’t going to stop it.
An America at peace with her neighbors would produce peaceful citizens. Do peaceful nations suffer from an epidemic of mass shootings? Of course they don’t. If America had been at peace every day since 1989 we wouldn’t be suffering from them, either.
