My father owns guns. My father in law owns guns as do both of my brother in laws. My husband even owns a gun. Somewhere in the attic is his shotgun from his days of father and son hunting trips and there is a box of bullets hidden so well in the basement even I have never come across them. I don't like guns. It's the only tool in which perfecting your ability to use means being able to kill or destroy something. But I don't blame gun owners for Arizona. And as much as I would love to blame Palin and Limbaugh and Beck for the tragedy I know that is not reasonable. The motive behind the event is unclear and it is possible that target marks on a map or phrases like lock and reload help to spur on those who are unstable but it surely is not the cause.
Jared Lee Loughner is clearly a troubled young man. The motive behind taking so many lives goes far beyond what any website graphic or over-opinionated talk show host could ever inspire. But blaming Palin and the other neo-cons makes it easier to understand, easier to process. It makes people feel safer. If we just got Palin to shut up things like this wouldn't happen, if we just took away all the guns then little girls wouldn't be murdered in a parking lot. If they just stopped then my family would be safe.
Unfortunately that is just not true.
I hold my children close each night before they go to bed and each morning before I leave for work because I am well aware that every moment is a gift that can be snatched away without warning. We'll never be able to comprehend why Loughner did what he did. Honestly, I don't want to understand. I don't want to be able to follow a train of thought that would lead to that much death. I don't need to blame someone, I just need to hold my children and to love them. That is the only thing any of us can really do.
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