I’m not writing about real estate today so if you are looking for that come back next week.
What I am writing about is Memorial Day. Not being from the US, I read about the history of Memorial Day on my own. When I first got here, it seemed like Memorial Day was a huge kick-off to a summer party. I didn’t get why you used the word “memorial” for a feel-good celebration with beaches, beers and BBQ. Then I did a bit of research and realized that it first began in 1868 as a recognition of the lives lost in the Civil War. It’s actually meant to be a solemn day to remember those young people who sacrificed their lives for the ideals of this country.
This week in Uvalde, Texas, 19 young people again sacrificed their lives for the ideals of this country. The ideal that the right to bear arms trumps any right of theirs to go to school and grow up in a safe, caring environment. Collectively, we have decided that the right to own a weapon of war is more important than the life any child. And New Yorkers, you don’t get a pass on this. We had a child die on the steps of her school just last month – and we did nothing.
Why? It’s not our son. It’s not our daughter. It’s not our school. It’s not our neighborhood. But if this shit continues, it will be.
I am from a country where people thought the same way. We are safe. Bad things won’t happen to me. Now all my friends live in homes with in compounds with 10-foot gates, electric fences, and multiple guards and security teams armed with machine guns. They have to lock their sleeping floor each night with armored doors and prison like gates. They sleep with guns by their ir beds, in their cars and at their place of work. They have all been held up at gunpoint. My own sisters lived through a home invasion that saw them and my four-year-old nephew tied up and forced to witness the execution of their guards right in front of them – and with that they fled. Like so many South Africans, the violence became too much. They didn’t want to live in a gilded prison any longer.
My question is when does it become too much for us? Do we all just give up and flee for safer countries? Mass shootings are an American phenomenon. By and large, they only happen here. So the mental health excuse or “people shoot people” slogan is fucking dumb. There are people all over the world with mental illness and this shit doesn’t happen there. Additionally, the “we need more guns” idea is even more dumb – in the last 10 years we have added 100 million firearms to our previous total of 300 million and we only have more shootings. Or my favorite is “we need more police”. We are the most policed country in the world and one of the only countries in the developed world where police carry guns – and yet here we are. Actually, my favorite stupid idea is that “teachers need guns” – this is so moronic it deserves no explanation. How about instead of putting the blame and burden on everyone else, we actually point to the real problem – us?
We are the problem. It is our fault. Collectively, WE are responsible for the death of the teachers and children in Uvalde, the grocery store shoppers in Buffalo, and the 16-year-old girl leaving school in the Bronx. And don’t complain about the politicians – we fucking elect them! It’s all on us.
So what do we do? There are now more guns than people in the US. So nicely asking everyone to give up their weapons isn’t going to work. Gun-responsible legislation can help, but it’s not the answer. It has to be a change in our ideals – and I don’t know how or when that happens. Children aren’t born with these values, they are taught them by their parents, teachers, and role models.
Maybe it starts with just a thought. This weekend when you are enjoying your beer and BBQ, spend sixty seconds thinking of the kind of Memorial Day they are having in Uvalde, Texas. Just like the first Memorial Day that happened 154 years ago, parents will gather to mourn the deaths of their children who died upholding the values of this country.
Let’s do this.
-Shaun