Listening to NPR, I heard a story about a vigil for the victims of the recent mass shooting in San Bernadino, at the end of which they read the names of the dead.
We’ve come to a time and place where this has no meaning. It has become part of a ritual Americans repeat far too frequently. These men and women, once the event is over, are essentially forgotten. The people we do remember are the ones who should be forgotten – the perpetrators of these horrific crimes.
Every time a mass shooting occurs, there’s a flurry of words, hashtags, and anger, and then silence and inaction. We practically have a script. Many of us swear we’re going to go do something about it. Nothing ever happens.
I think Erika Napoletano put it best: Just imagine if we were as interested and active as we are angry.
What if we spent all the energy we use hash-tagging and posting and praying and getting angry to do something? Couldn’t we change this paradigm?
I’m going to paraphrase some of Erika’s ideas about what you might do. Feel free to add your own. But whatever you do, take action.
- Register to vote, and use that right. You can do it right here with just the last 4 digits of your Social Security number. Once you’ve done that, vote every time you have a chance, from local to Federal.
- Contact your elected officials. Tell them action needs to be taken. Maybe even suggest some ideas.
- Talk to people about this issue. Do it in person, face-to-face, with people you know you don’t agree with. Be open-minded. Talk about all the aspects of the issue. Talk about guns, safety, mental health, and anything else you think is related. Somewhere within the extremes of rhetoric is middle ground where we might agree to take action.
- Stay the course. Don’t let this fade away. Stay involved until we come to some sort of solution. Keep voting, keep talking, keep moving. Don’t make us hear the names of the dead again.