Ten Amish school girls shot in the head at close range by a man who was foiled in his plan to molest them by the early arrival of the police. Five were killed quickly, five are still hospitalized, three in critical condition. Another gunman in another school sexually assaulted some of his six female hostages before police intervened. He killed himself and a 16 year old hostage. In Montreal, just across the border, 19 were wounded and one killed by a lone gunman who went on a rampage at a college.
Next week, the Commander-in-Chief will finally make a long overdue public response to these atrocities. I use the phrase "Commander-in-Chief" because Bush is not appearing as a compassionate conservative. This will be another Terra Pep Rally. The administration has decided to label the societal ills of pedophilia, child abuse, gun violence and mass murder "terror" crimes. Homeland Security will be mobilized to step up security at schools. Students will be stripped of their rights, as if being stripped of their sense of safety is not bad enough. Heightened restrictions on the internet will be promoted, even though these lone predators are the people least likely to share their intentions with others on line or to conspire with others via the internet. Laws against "sex offenders" will be tightened---as if extending the sentences of those who have consensual sex with 17 year olds will stem the tide of gun violence. The aim of the administration will be to convince every mother and father in America that their own daughter will soon be looking down the barrel of a gun---unless the parents vote Republican and surrender their will to Bush and Cheney.
Things we will not hear in our new Article II world: the role easy access to firearms played in each of these tragedies. The Republicans are not about to alienate the National Rifle Association voting block this close to the midterm election. The NRA wants parents to believe that if they are well armed, then Katy is somehow safer at school. Or at least, if she is assaulted, Dad will be equipped to go avenge her honor. For this is one of the problems with the Article II World with its the easy access to guns. It teaches people that their anger, frustration and all the perceived wrongs which they have suffered at the hands of a cruel, uncaring society can be remedied through violence. Indeed, they must be remedied through violence, if one is a
real man like John Wayne. Men, white mean in particular, are taught at a young age that only sissies cry. Real men get mad. They get even. So, when life presents its inevitable losses and sorrows, like the death of a premature child, the sadness can not be expressed through mourning. It can only be discharged through the end of a gun.
Now, compare the Terra Pep Rally which the Commander-in-Chief has prepared for next week to the way that Bill Clinton responded to the shooting at Columbine. Within days, he was making constructive remarks, praising the heroes of the conflict and calling for silent prayer for the victims. Within a month of the shooting, he appeared before the class at Columbine as described here
"President Clinton urged the students of Columbine High School Thursday to use the spotlight drawn to their community by tragedy to create a better future for all children across the nation.
"'What happened to you has pierced the soul of America," Clinton told the students during a visit to Littleton. "And it gives you a chance to be heard in a way no one else can be heard ... by the president and by ordinary people in every community in this country."
"As the president began his speech at Littleton's Dakota Ridge High School, hundreds of Columbine students greeted him with a rousing and deafening chant in pep-rally fashion. "We are Columbine! We are Columbine!" they shouted as the president smiled in delight.
"'I am impressed that you are moving forward," Clinton responded. "I am proud of all of you .... I have to say I think that what has impressed me most is the way in the midst of this you have held on to your faith.'"
http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/stories/1999/05/20/clinton.littleton/Did it ever occur to Bush to take his fabled folksy charm on the road to Colorado or to Amish country? He could have consoled some grieving parents. He could have helped some communities which were mourning. I guess not. The midterms are coming up. He has campaigning to do. It is the Amish who seem to be reaching out to us, to help us with
our sense of loss and pain, in their readiness to forgive the gunman and the society which keeps producing people like him.
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