Peace on Earth

3 December 2015

'Tis the season of peace on earth and good will toward men.  The season when, if we're not singing "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" or fighting each other over some sale item at Target, we are supposed to be celebrating the birth of the King of Peace.

So why did the noon news report another mass shooting in San Bernardino?  17 killed, at least 14 injured, the killers themselves shot (so no chance to get their reason for the slaughter).  This makes 2 this week, doesn't it?  It's become such a common thing that I can't remember now...or was the Colorado Planned Parenthood shooting last week?

There is a lot of chatter about whether or not this was an act of terrorism.  I thought mass murder of innocent victims was, by definition, terrorism.  Or is it terrorism only when proven international shooters are involved?  I knew when they identified the shooter as "Sayed Farook" that speculation would assume that somehow ISIS was involved.

When something like this happens, I feel sorry for the newscasters, who must be on the air 24/7 and have all that dead air to fill, hours when they know nothing, when they have no new shocking video to show, so repeat the same scenes over and over again all the while speculating on who might have done this terrible slaughter and what might their reasons have been.

I heard one guy tonight who was like nails on a blackboard saying "Well they coulda went home and they coulda went to get explosives and they coulda went back to see all the chaos they caused."

If you're going to wildly speculate, at least get your grammar correct!

I hate that we are becoming so used to mass murder.  I hate that we are all now sending our condolences to the families of the victims again and that many funerals will be shown on television in the coming week again.  I hate that this is our new reality

I hate that nobody is willing to address the issue of gun control.  I hate that this country is being run by the NRA.

I had lunch with Char today.  She's freshly returned from Ireland and I helped her readjust to normal by taking her to an Irish pub for fish 'n' chips and Guinness.  We talked about San Bernardino and the gun culture that has come to define this country. 

We talked about how of course tightening up gun regulations is not going to change anything immediately.  There will still be shootings and we will still shake our heads and wonder what is going wrong with this country, but as she pointed out there was a time when the first cigarette laws went into effect and didn't do much except in small areas, but now we are very aware of where we can and can't smoke and we get angry with people who violate our air space.

So if we tightened up gun laws and enforced them, over time, perhaps we would see a change in the mentality of people in this country.  Maybe we'd only see mass shootings once a month...or maybe we'd go a couple of months without people being shot.

But if we continue to let the NRA dictate our gun laws, things are only going to get worse.  And it doesn't make a difference if it's international terrorism or domestic terrorism.  Dead is dead.  Terrorism is terrorism, whether it's inspired by ISIS or by lies about Planned Parenthood spread by legislators determined to limit health care for women, men and children.

Couldn't we just take a break for the holidays?  No more mass murders world wide until after the birthday of the King of peace?  Please?