Slammed

The three coins of the ancient Chinese book of Changes.

How we older people do love to reminisce, and how we humans do love the status quo. By now our Christmas nostalgia is drowning in the wake of the Newton, Connecticut, shootings. The commentary, political and otherwise, is widespread and deafening. This post is about the only constant, change ... for, it is not exclusively the realm of the young to be in the present. Two of the most concerning messages I have encountered in the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre have come from older celebrities, actors whose work I regard highly. Morgan Freeman expressed the ever-popular, media exploitation and fifteen-minutes of fame, arguments. Next Samuel Jackson rang in with teaching the value of life. With respect, these good ideas are partial solutions, at best.

We are not merely confronted with change; we're being slammed into reality. We must respond with clear-headed views of present realities. In an increasingly crowded world, quality of life and mental health issues are magnified. Regardless of what good, sincere parents teach children, there are parents in our communities who cannot get themselves and their children early, effective, mental health services.

Regardless of how we feel about excessive press coverage and giving instant notoriety to perpetrators of horrific crimes, journalists will chronicle events, and they will name names. Not all this information is superfluous, and, by no mean should all of it be suppressed, even were it lawful to do so. At some point do we need to re-examine our national conscience about media overkill? Absolutely. Right now, however, we are responding poorly, as a nation, to the needs of the mentally ill, regardless of age. 

It matters not what part of the country you are from or whether you grew up with hunters imbued with profound reverence for life. Weapons, accessories and ammunition have become incrementally more sophisticated over a few decades. I am talking about guns designed to kill as many people as possible, with as much destructive force as possible, from a maximal distance, in the shortest possible length of time. 

I believe in the concept of the perfect storm. The question is, will we cling to the past, or acknowledge and address the present? Will we fail to implement security measures in our schools, reform our mental health systems, ban assault weapons? If we fail, it will not matter whether we implement background checks and waiting periods for gun sales. It will not matter whether we put a stop to media exploitation and curb our rapacious national appetite for violence, because we will not have done what we must do first. Here's another thought, from Bill Maher.

"Maybe every other American movie shouldn't be based on a comic book. Other countries will think Americans live in an infantile fantasy land where reality is whatever we say it is and every problem can be solved with violence."