Tag: gun violence

Dear Mr. Holt

Lester Holt is a journalist and the anchor of the NBC Nightly News.

Dear Mr. Holt,
When I watch the evening news, it is the NBC Nightly News on which you serve as the anchor.
I appreciate the image you project, which I assume to be genuine, of caring about the news on which you and your crew are reporting. I also appreciate how you end the broadcast each evening saying “Take care of yourself and each other.” Given the current state of our politics and our nation that is something we all need to be reminded of.

I am writing today in the shadow of yet another school shooting.
Another mass murder.
Seven more, counting the shooter, needless deaths.
So far this year, in 87 days, there have been 129 mass shootings.
And more than 9800 people killed by gun violence.
Firearm related deaths are the leading cause of death among children and youth.
Statistics which you already know.
Tragedy which you and your newsroom knows each day.
I fear Representative Tim Burchett (R-TN) is correct when he said when asked about the shooting in Nashville, “We’re not going to fix it.”

He is not.
Congress is not.
But, I wonder if you can.
If not “fix it,” at least to help move the pendulum a bit.
Here is what I mean.

I was a teenager in the late 1960’s at the height of the Vietnam War.
My family was fairly traditional.
My parents, particularly my Dad, fairly conservative.
Each evening we watched the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite.
What I remember from that time is, at the end of each broadcast, he would tell us how many US soldiers had died that day in Vietnam and how many had been killed in the entire war.
Each day…
Every day…
We heard those numbers.
And, over time it made a difference.
At least in my household.
More questions were asked about the war.
More healthy skepticism expressed when listening to political talking points.

I wonder if you could do something similar.
I don’t want you to take away your tagline because we still need to hear it, but could you find a way to add how many people had been killed that day by guns and how many have died so far this year.
If you did that
Each day.
Every day.
We would be reminded.
And, maybe changed.
And, maybe little by little find a way
Find the courage
To make a change.

Thank you for listening.

Sincerely,
Paul Alcorn

Thoughts and Prayers

If all you have
Is thoughts
And prayers
Don’t bother.
We have been there before
And heard it before
And still this.

When you pray
If you pray
Then move your feet.
Do something.
If the actions of your life
Don’t follow the words of your prayer
Your words are empty
And don’t mean a thing.

Deafening Silence

Early on Sunday morning, a young man walked into a Waffle House in Nashville, TN armed with an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle and began shooting killing four people and wounding four others. When he paused to reload, his gun was wrestled from him and he fled. My online news feed is filled with comments about the silence of elected officials in the wake of this shooting. No thoughts and prayers. No reaction about another white terrorist or why so many young, white males commit acts like this. No comment that the shooter was white and the victims were black. I know with certainty that if the shooter was black or Muslim or an immigrant and the victims were white the reaction would be far different.

But the silence I am most concerned about is not theirs, but ours.
According to Gun Violence Archive, for the week ending April 23, 717 people were killed or injured by guns. That is more than 100 people/day! The year to date number through April 23 is 12,065. 12,065! That is roughly the population of the suburban community in which I live. But unless the shootings occur at some place like a school, the devastating effect of gun violence barely registers with us. It is so common it just is. An everyday occurance 100 times each day.

I don’t know what a workable solution is.
But I know my/our silence adds to our inability or unwillingness to find one. Only when enough of us – both those of us who do not own guns and those who do and who use and care for their guns responsibility – begin to speak up and to say “Enough” will we begin to find a way to lower that number. And that number is, after all, people like you and me.
Mothers.
Fathers.
Sisters.
Brothers.
People with families.
People who will not celebrate their next birthday.
People who will not have another dinner with their loved ones.
People.

Are we really okay with 700 of our neighbors being killed or injured each week by guns?

#MarchForOurLives

#Columbine
#VirginiaTech
#FortHood
#SandyHook
#Aurora
#SanBernardino
#OrlandoNightClub
#TexasFirstBaptistChurch
#LasVegas
#Parkland
Last week 756 people were killed or injured by guns.
This year 8187 people have been killed or injured by guns.
Including 701 children and youth.
Firearm-related deaths are the third leading cause of death overall among U.S. children aged 1 to 17 years.

Today, led by high school students, hundreds of thousands of people in over 800 communities across our country have walked out their doors and into our streets to say #EnoughIsEnough.

They have decided.
Now it is our turn.
When are the rest of us going to catch up with our children?
And add our voice to theirs?

Outrage

On Monday afternoon, October 31, Habinullaevic Saipov drove a rented truck down the a busy bike path in New York City killing 8 people and injuring a dozen more. Our response was immediate. Shock. Sadness. Anger. Outrage. Once again we asked how and why something like this could happen.

In no way do I want to minimize the tragedy of what happened or the unbearable grief of those families and friends who have lost loved ones. But, in the aftermath of the event I found myself wondering about our outrage which so often seems like just a flash in the pan and then nothing. We should be shocked and outraged by what happened. And, ask what happened to a young man who was thoroughly vetted when he came to this country and then was radicalized. Something happened. What?

But, sometimes it seems to me events like this provide a protective covering which allows us to forget or to ignore statistics like these. Realities we should be equally outraged about. On the same day Habinullaevic Saipov killed 8 people in New York City:

This all happens around us.
Right around us.
Each and every day.
We need to be outraged.
By all of it.
And then we need to summon the courage to do something about it.

Insanity

The number of people killed or wounded in the shooting in Las Vegas:
59 killed. More than 500 wounded.
The cause: mental illness.
Not his, but ours.
Yours and mine.
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over
and expecting a different result.
Orlando, FL
San Bernardino, CA
Colorado Springs, CO
Roseburg, OR
Chattanooga, TN
Charleston, SC
Isla Vista, CA
Fort Hood, TX
Washington, DC
Newtown, CT
Do I need to go on?

It is easy to just point fingers and to blame others.
Politicians.
NRA.
Gun manufacturers.
But, finger pointing and blaming is part of the illness.
I am afraid we have not hit the bottom yet, because we have not yet decided we need to get better.

Tags

Several things I believe: