Again, Again.
Another week, another mass shooting. This time-again-at a school. Again, lots of “thoughts and prayers” flowing from the denizens of the vaunted Halls of Congress to the victims, families, and communities affected by the mass carnage. Again, the casualties were at the hands of a right-wing seduced, deranged person with the legal right to obtain a weapon, the sole purpose of which is to shoot really hard and really fast. Again, the sane citizens of our country recoil in horror, shed tears and shout loudly and angrily for our lawmakers to enact legislation to curtail future attacks of this nature. Again, the NRA shrugs its shoulders, twitches the strings attached to their puppets in Congress and around the country, reminding them of the campaign cash that will stop coming their way if they so much as make a statement in anyway disparaging America’s out-of-control gun culture. Again, these Congressional NRA whores make their egregious statements that the time right after another mass killing isn’t the time to talk about gun control. Again, America’s Second Amendment Patriots, fearing a crackdown on their ammosexual lusts, rush out to buy, buy, buy a stockpile of rounds and guns. And, again, tragically, oh, so tragically, not a damn thing will change. Again. Again. Again.
Each time a shooter with easy access to implements of mass killing unloads on his (so far, exclusively “his”, him being a white, right-wing zealot) unsuspecting targets, people are maimed, people die. This, as stated before, is tragic. In addition to those people who die, something else dies—our collective faith in the American system. Each time a mass killing such as the Las Vegas or Florida shootings occur, a majority of Americans clamor for gun control, changes in what guns are allowed to cross the retail counter or who is allowed to legally obtain them. And each time the majority of Americans call for changes to an obviously flawed system, the NRA, its Congressional lackeys and right-wing media, a vastly smaller group of people, shut the discussion down and stops any hope of change dead in its tracks.
Each time a tragedy such as this happens, it further underscores who is really in control. Don’t be fooled. It is not We the People. It is Those With The Money. I urge you to take a look at the study conducted by Gilens and Page in which these two academians asked the simple question “Does the government represent the people?” They based their study on 20 years of public policy enacted by the U.S. government counterposed with public opinion surveys. In other words, did the government enact the policies that the public wanted it to? Overwhelmingly but not surprisingly, the study found that, no, the government didn’t listen to the wishes of the economic bottom 90% of the U.S. citizenry. Whom the government did listen to was the top 10% of income earners, again and again and again. Money talks. We all know that. We also know that the Citizens United decision, in a gross oversimplification, gave corporations and the wealthy the legal justification for buying elections by being able to pour unlimited and unreported money into those elections.
Thus, it should not be a surprise at all that despite the majority of Americans wanting some sort of changes to the availability of certain types of guns and who can obtain them, the deep pockets of the NRA will keep that from ever happening.
Nor should it be a surprise that the insane wealth of the heavily subsidized petroleum industry has curtailed environmentally-friendly energy projects popular with a growing percentage of the population and pushed their anti-climate change agenda instead. Or that the general population supported areas of worker safety, affordable healthcare, public education and a long list of others are systematically being stripped away by the corporations and lobbyists who stand to benefit the most from their disappearance.
The sooner we come to the realization that We the People really don’t matter, the sooner we can figure out what we need to do in order to affect change—real change. Take a look around. See what is happening. Look at who is benefitting from all of the Trump Administration deregulation. Too many people fall for the conman routine and hear the shallow and vacuous bloviating of Mr. Trump, Speaker Ryan and Majority Leader McConnell who endlessly promise to be working to (gag!) “Make America Great Again!” while pushing an agenda that is obviously meant to benefit the upper-echelons of society at the expense of the very people who voted them into office.
The Parkland school shooting is a grievous event, ruining lives, destroying families, wreaking havoc on those involved, stripping from them a sense of normality that will be incredibly difficult to ever reestablish. Anytime that there is a loss of life and devastating injury, especially if avoidable, it is appalling. The Trump Administration and GOP Congress are enacting a plethora of policies that are bound to cause harm and conceivably death despite the outcry of a majority of the population. It is time for We the People to put our collective foot down and say, “Never again! We have had enough! We demand to be heard and our wishes acted upon!” Until we can collectively do this, know that the barrel of Trump’s and the GOP’s and Corporate America’s agenda is pointed in our direction.
