Houston We *Still* Have A Problem

Friday, November 1, 2013

Actually I would say we have more than one significant problem in the United States right now.  But I am going to speak here about the one that keeps popping up over and over again in the news.  And just as quickly as it surfaces it disappears again from the consciousness of our all too distracted society.  Yes, it's time to talk about gun violence...AGAIN.

I was eating lunch today during my break from a day treatment program I have been attending at Abbott Northwestern Hospital.  As is common in many public places in the United States there are televisions in the basement level floor where one can find the cafeteria.  I was sitting enjoying a healthy lunch when I chose to look up and check what was on the screens.  I didn't really pause to think through that choice.  On one screen Fox "News" was obsessively covering the story of the shooting incident at Los Angeles Airport.  And a nearby screen featured what appeared to be a soap opera replete with the predictable yelling, hateful looks and other theatrics.

I have to say I am experiencing immense compassion fatigue regarding the issue of gun violence in America.  Next month will be the one year anniversary of the Newtown, Connecticut massacre of schoolchildren.  Unlike previous incidents of senseless gun violence it appeared (at least for a time) that the Newtown disaster might finally foment sufficient public outrage that a sensible change in our policies regarding firearms might finally take place.  That didn't really happen.  Though President Obama did use his power to create several Executive Orders intended to address this disheartening issue little substantive change has occurred.  I don't even know how many people have died due to wounds inflicted by firearms throughout the country in the time since the Newtown tragedy thrust the issue back into the conscious awareness of the American people.  I suspect it's fairly similar to what was true before that incident.  Inner city children in Chicago still die each week due to violence.  Children still find guns adults thought they had successfully hidden away from small hands and curious minds.  And then more young lives end.  Suicides still continue among servicemembers who served in multiple tours in Iraq or Afghanistan.  And terminally ill people still seek the comfort of ending their lives rather than linger through a hollow life defined too much by immense pain.  I don't expect these aspects of our national life will necessarily change much.

Despite my low expectations I still became very upset today when I saw the news about the shooting in Los Angeles.  But my upset was not really a reaction to this particular event.  No, I am tired of hearing the media cover one story after another that focuses specifically on this issue.  Why?  I find there to be such pretense in our media's attention to this issue.  The predictable coverage includes news anchors speaking with shock and horror about the shooting event.  Images of SWAT teams, polices officers and the like fill the screens.  The appearance of trauma induced hand wringing and soul-searching briefly fills the coverage on multiple channels.  And then, days later, the story is already old news.

Here is my opinion.  Let's either have a real conversation about gun violence in America (i.e. one in which the NRA does not twist the dialogue to the point that people actually think Obama is coming to take all your guns personally and the poor NRA is being 'attacked'!) or let's drop all coverage of it permanently.  Let's stop the pretense.  If the slaughter of a group of six year old children does not move the national conscience sufficiently (and I believe I am assuming quite a bit by imagining there is such a thing as a 'national conscience') to do something demonstrably effective regarding gun violence what would it actually take?  I believe we are nearly at the end of that side of the spectrum of the most horrible possibilities.  When I try to imagine populations of individuals more vulnerable (and thus more likely to elicit sympathy from the general public) than six year old kids all I can come up with is infants, toddlers and the elderly.  Would we need a massacre of a large number of people from one of these groups to generate sufficient outrage to change our course?  It seems so.

I quickly had my fill of the coverage beaming down at me.  I was also more than a bit perturbed that such coverage was being allowed in a hospital cafeteria.  I don't believe such 'news' is appropriate given that many people likely to be found in a hospital environment have their own serious healing challenges to face.  I certainly did not feel comfortable once I realized what was coming through the screen.  Having finished my lunch I stood up and left.  

Secondly, incidents of gun violence are so commonplace in this country that it strikes me they aren't really news any more.  Shouldn't the newsworthiness of a story be determined in part by its frequency?  How is something that is a virtual epidemic problem in this country newsworthy when the reality of its scope has not prompted a sane collective response to change policy?  You would have to be living under a rock to not be aware of this issue.  And yet nothing has really changed.

I don't wish to be a Debbie Downer by harping about this issue but I seriously believe it is put up or hush up time regarding gun violence in America.  We've reached the end of the road folks.  Massacres cannot be much more grim than what happened in Newtown.  Between this issue and the issues playing out in our federal government (as reflected by the government shutdown last month) I cannot help but imagine many in other countries are wondering the following: 'What is going on in America?'