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Americans Must Understand that a Bullet Has All of Our Names on It
By any measure of civil rationality, the plague of gun violence in America is out of control. Almost daily and across the nation, the body count of people wounded or killed rises like the mercury in a thermometer under a summer sun. Every weekend, for example, news reporters in Chicago and Washington, D.C., track shootings and deaths in what has become a morbidly routine tally.
These daily accounts read like a police blotter—all cool details and dry facts. The stories are devoid of the emotional wallop that surely fills the hearts of the family and friends who knew and loved the victims. There is little humanity shared in the description of the lives crippled or ended by a bullet.
A hidden psychology of race affects the nation’s will to see the suffering of African Americans and, as a consequence, impedes the nation’s collective demands for change. Specifically, in the case of guns, there is a perception that African Americans are more violent, and therefore, an armed—white—citizenry is prudent to be fearful and justified in seeking protection. Rarely are such views boldly expressed, but they lurk in the shadows of the political debate over guns.
So it comes as little wonder that the vast majority of people are numb to these shocking headlines. They absorb such news with no more than a tsk-tsk at the violence with wrinkled brows—and then they go on with their lives.
https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/race/news/2016/07/01/140784/americans-must-understand-that-a-bullet-has-all-of-our-names-on-it/
These daily accounts read like a police blotter—all cool details and dry facts. The stories are devoid of the emotional wallop that surely fills the hearts of the family and friends who knew and loved the victims. There is little humanity shared in the description of the lives crippled or ended by a bullet.
A hidden psychology of race affects the nation’s will to see the suffering of African Americans and, as a consequence, impedes the nation’s collective demands for change. Specifically, in the case of guns, there is a perception that African Americans are more violent, and therefore, an armed—white—citizenry is prudent to be fearful and justified in seeking protection. Rarely are such views boldly expressed, but they lurk in the shadows of the political debate over guns.
So it comes as little wonder that the vast majority of people are numb to these shocking headlines. They absorb such news with no more than a tsk-tsk at the violence with wrinkled brows—and then they go on with their lives.
https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/race/news/2016/07/01/140784/americans-must-understand-that-a-bullet-has-all-of-our-names-on-it/
The very next paragraph says it so much better than I ever could:
It is in these empty spaces of concern that feckless politicians stand, refusing to respond to a mute majority of Americans supporting reasonable and rational gun control laws. Instead, some politicians respond to the campaign contributions from the National Rifle Association and others who are loud and proud in support of guns.
Let that statement sink in and ask yourself "why can't we at least address the gun violence problem in this country rationally?"
