CONTROL

It seems to me that extremist views are dominating our essential dialogue in America. For example, in the Uvalde, Texas mas slaughter, over 400 men with guns failed to stop the carnage. So yells about gun control reverberate.

Then in Indiana, one “good Samaritan” with a gun stopped an episode before a more extensive e mass killing might have occurred occurred. (Yes, one is too many). Extremists will yell, “Arm everyone.”

 Truth is, reactions to mass murders aren’t any more predicable than, it sometimes seems, reactions to minor criminal offenses. Events occur. History marches past without having consulted our opinion, and we beat on, “boats against the current.”

Consider:

Had Israel B. Richards not been mortally wounded at Antietam while leading his division in a charge on the sunken road, could the Civil War have ended on September 17, 1862? Some say yes. Some say no. 

Had Gavrilo Princip lost his way on June 28, 1914 and not found the Archduke and his wife, could the world have avoided World War I? Some say yes. Some say no.

If I strap on a pistol and happen to be at the next mass shooting, will I (and I have been trained on weaponry from the semi-automatic 45-caliber pistol to the M-60 machine gun to the M-79 grenade launcher) stop the killing and emerge a hero? I can’t imagine anyone saying, “Yes.”

If I lead a life suggestive of the premise that disagreements are best settled by thoughtful dialectics and compassionate dialogue, might the world emerge a bit more stable. I think so.

Maybe it's not guns that need controlling but our national psyche. 

ASPIRATIONS

 One statement that has impacted me more than most this year, was from a pundit on the news: “We don’t elect aspirational voices anymore.” How true. We elect voices that feed our niche. We elect voices that hate the same people we do. We elect voices that support what got us here, not what will get us out of here. We elect voices that promise to reduce rights for our enemies. We elect voices that promise to increase the likelihood of religious wars. We elect voices that feed our prejudices.

I live in a state that ranks at or near the bottom in every socioeconomic measurement of success. Our governor just announced  the good news that the state is experiencing a revenue surplus.

Will he have a “Cassidy Hutchinson Moment" and turn from the Dark Side?

Will he announce investment of funds for the impoverished Arkansas Delta?

Will he announce new measures to confront the drug crisis that is crippling our families and communities?

Will he move surplus funds into an improvement of education?

Will he work address crime and violence caused by our love of guns?

Well, no to all of these.

He plans to ask the legislature to cut taxes.

FREEDOM DAY

The darker angels of my nature offer a number of reasons why I should stare at my Honorable Discharge today and wonder if it was worth it. The voices of those who will most likely be elected to govern our state have not uttered one note of aspiration, only hints of retribution and retaliation.

The highest court in our land seems to hate everything I thought was decent and worthy of service. I have friends today who stare at their marriage license and wonder if it, unlike their love, will be everlasting. I even have dear friends who want our beloved democracy to be replaced by a bronze-age theocracy.

I see teenagers walking to work in the heat while televangelists ride in private jets at the taxpayers’ expense.

I see the deterioration of neighborhoods addressed by accusations on both sides, not acts by either.

But I read history and have seen my beloved country’s greatness spring from the darkest of swamps. It is stronger than those who call me a sucker for serving her and so I will.