Charita Goshay: Doing nothing has us coming undone
I can't speak for other columnists, but I'm tapped out.
How many more different and creative ways can you write about it?
But we must, mostly because everything in life begins with a thought, and if we're lucky, we might stumble upon a solution in spite of ourselves.
Still.
There has been nothing new or creative to say about mass shootings since Sandy Hook, when it was naively presumed that dead first graders and teachers would be the catalyst; that surely, surely, something will change now.
Though 90% of Americans would like to see some changes in gun policies, the people who work for us have steadfastly refused to even entertain anything new.
They keep being returned to office so, really, why should they?
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They'll continue to do what they've always done: Pole dance for their base and the big-check lobbyists, then play out the clock and wait for the outrage to burn itself out.
If it wouldn't be such a cynical thing to do, perhaps journalists should just create a master story with blank spaces as needed for different details:
Today ----- people were shot, including ---- fatally as a gunman opened fire in -----.
Police say the gunman used an ------.
He was taken into custody.
Gov. -------- called for more resources for mental heath services, though last year he signed a budget which included reduced funding for such treatment.
"This must stop," he said. "Americans have a right to live in safety.
"We offer our thoughts and prayers to the families."
Sen. ----- called for arming teachers.
"We must make our schools a harder target," he said. "We offer our thoughts and prayers to the families."
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The massacres in Buffalo and Uvalde underscore yet again what is an American problem, and it isn't mental illness.
What's happened over the last two weeks; what happened at Emmanuel AME Church, at the Tree of Life Synagogue, in Las Vegas, only happens here.
And if it only happens here, what is the X-factor if it is not people having easy access to weapons designed for war?
So, how have governors across the country reacted to this American phenomenon? By signing bills eliminating the need for licensing or training on a weapon and, as is the case in Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott calling for more mental health treatment knowing full well he just cut $211 million out of the state budget for it.
Make it make sense.
We have officials bloviating about having armed teachers in classrooms — the same people they say they don't trust to teach American history?
So, there's money available for guns — which are not cheap — but not for notebooks, pencils and tissues?
If police officers in Uvalde couldn't confront someone spraying the halls with an AR-15, if a retired police officer in Buffalo couldn't stop a shooter, what makes anyone think a terrified school librarian could do it?
Make it make sense.
Things fall apart
You didn't have to know Joe Garcia to know he died from a broken heart just two days after his wife, Irma, his high school sweetheart, was among those murdered in Uvalde.
Married for 24 years, they've left behind four children.
Their story reminds us that the dead aren't the only victims in a mass shooting. We have had so many that it can be easy to forget that every incident is deeply personal for someone.
Families are broken and shattered. Survivors are forever scarred.
A community becomes a byword.
We know this much is true: If we do not change, if we do not even try, we will make true William Butler Yeats' poetic prediction:
"Turning and turning in the widening gyre (spiral)
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the center cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity ..."
Charita M. Goshay is a Canton Repository staff writer and member of the editorial board. Reach her at 330-580-8313 or charita.goshay@cantonrep.com. On Twitter: @cgoshayREP
This article originally appeared on The Repository: Charita Goshay: I'm tapped out writing about mass shootings
