When Is Enough Enough?
The first thing I did once I got home from work today, was log onto my Facebook account and the first post I saw was about another school shooting at Oregon. My initial reaction was, oh God, not again. My second reaction was I didn't even know about this because I was at work all day, and my third was why was there only one post in my entire newsfeed regarding this?
Have we become so complacent to what Obama called "routine" shootings? Do we just accept that these acts of violence against innocent lives are okay? When is enough enough? I am angry that there are people out there who think that it is okay to shoot innocent people who are sitting in a classroom learning, to further their intellectual growth and careers. I am angry that we still live in a world where some people believe that someone's religion determines whether an individual is a good person or not. Tolerance and respect are what make religion what is it. It should bring us together, not divide us.
I mourn for the innocent lives that were lost today. I mourn for the students who should have went to school today and learned something to better their lives, instead of have their lives cut short by someone who clearly has hate for human life and religion.
It is not okay to accept that mass shootings will occur. It is not okay to stand by and do nothing. It is not okay to be complacent. We must rally together as a nation, and enact change. Whether that's fighting for better gun control laws, teaching your neighbor tolerance, or even taking time out of our busy days to stop and reflect, we need to do something. We are better than this. We need to be better than this. #enoughisenough #UCCShooting
It's times like this I cannot stress mental health care enough. If people were able to get treatment and help before hand, these tragedies wouldn't occur (or at least not with as high a frequency). The stigma of mental illness prevents so many people from getting help, not just because of personal pride, but because mental illness is not treated with equivalency to physical illness; even at a professional level. As part of gun (and namely, violence) control, mental heath evaluations should be given before allowing people to get a hold of guns or weapons in general. Sure guns are plentiful and it seems like an uphill, futile battle, but doing nothing is surely worse. Waving one's white flag in the air, saying "things are irreparably bad, so I will let them stay bad" is the exact kind of learned helplessness that needs to be counteracted.
ReplyDeleteI think it's very important that you noted how Obama is upset with the complacency over the violence here in America. The second amendment was an American right enacted in the late 1700s. Considering how it is the 21st century, I think the Founding Fathers would attest to the fact that because America has changed, so should the rights. (After all, the constitutional rights were based on the lowest commonalities between the feuding sides in the U.S. at the time)
It was sensical back then to have the right to guns, but with how society is today, it is absolutely irrational. Arguments that people are safer with guns is, while well intentioned, a fallacious argument. In first world countries with stricter gun control, the rates of violence are far lower than they are in the U.S. On that note, the U.S. also has the highest rate of incarceration in a first world country.
Perhaps because the U.S. was founded upon slavery and murder of native peoples with the ironic declaration of freedom from Britain, it is logical the child country has grown out of control.
Instead of saying all is lost, as aforementioned with learned helplessness, the U.S. needs to ask itself HOW to implement a system of true safety (over prejudice and discrimination, able-ism, etc.), instead of this "every man for himself" mentality that has dug the U.S. into a deeper and deeper hole.