I caught myself staring into space several times yesterday, each time my thoughts wandering to Christina Green, the nine year-old girl who was shot and killed almost a week ago in Tucson, Arizona, when she eagerly went to meet Democratic congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. Christina had just been elected to her school's student council.
A writer of fiction couldn't come up with as much tragic irony as that which surrounded Christina's brief life. She was born on September 11, 2001 and she died on just as violent a day as the one in which she came into this troubled world.
(One of the greatest ironies, of course, is that gun sales in Arizona rose dramatically after the shooting because subsequent gun control laws were feared. While family members mourned the loss of their little girl, people in that very community were running out to buy more weapons, thanks to an antiquated interpretation of the constitution that gives them and every mentally unstable American the right to bear arms.)
Between Christina's birth and death, exists a timeline of trends that could foreshadow disaster. After September 11th, the fundamental rifts between American political parties deepened and quickly grew toxic, platforms for incendiary rhetoric became commonplace as media grew less objective and more partisan, wars were started abroad to supposedly protect the homeland, while morally and financially draining it, the rich grew richer and the middle class became poor and the backlash toward foreigners in a country of immigrants, showed a very hateful, xenophobic side of Americans, particularly in Arizona.
Obama's speech in Arizona was very moving and eloquently called for unity, but conservatives and liberals despise each other so much right now, I wonder if much of what Obama said can be heard?
And Sarah Palin, yet again, managed to upstage the president's speech by putting together a presidential-like video of her own and spewing further divisive and anti-Semitic language at a time when Americans should be pondering why the USA is protecting "freedom" all over the world but it can't protect an innocent nine year-old child in her own hometown? And it can't protect mentally ill people from hurting themselves or their fellow citizens?
Neither "Islamic terrorists" nor illegal immigrants killed that little girl, a mentally disturbed American-born man with a gun did. Universal healthcare, which Giffords supports, (oddly, she also supports gun possesion) would cover treatment for more mentally ill people. Mandatory health insurance is supposedly "unconstitutional" and un-American. Allowing an insane person to buy a gun, however, isn't?
I'm at a loss. I really don't understand.
I wonder, is it because I've been here in Europe too long? Is it easier, from here, to see the USA's stubborn isolation in its handling of healthcare, gun control and human rights issues compared to other wealthy democracies?
"I want our democracy to be as good as she imagined it," Barack Obama said yesterday about Christina Green. I want that, too but a democracy that allows for a dangerous mix of violence and social inequity will never live up to the expectations that Christina Green surely had.
May she rest in peace.
7 comments:
Very powerful piece. I don't understand either.
It is quite disturbing. As I always say to anyone who will listen: its not the Islamic terrorists I fear, its the Americans in my own backyard that I fear.
We condemn terrorism from the Middle East, but we consider domestic terrorism done by the hands of a white person (if it were a minority it'd be considered terrorism or something worse)to be freedom of speech.
Its no doubt in my mind that this guy was encouraged by the violent hate speech of the republicans and what is sad is that instead of using this as a lesson for why America needs to change, Americans just prove to the world just how stupid this country really is by only doing more to encourage repeat events.
How many times must events like this happen before Americans actually get a clue? But then again, a country built on violence is going to end in violence.
I don't think your sentiments are the result of being in Europe. The truth is in the span of 10 years, the American ideal has turned on its side. The revolutionary spirit has created the nation has faltered I dare not guess its reason. It seems folks aren't really fighting for anything just, only power--specifically maintaining status quo. It seems as though Americans have devolved, lost their ability to reason--simply have lost their minds. Take a glimpse of Fox News. Wait, don't. It will make you wanna holler...
I moved to Ireland in August having spent pretty much all my life in the southern US. However, in the last two years or so I've felt my mind numbed by people's ideals of freedom and liberty. Unfortunately, folks who hold these falsely inflated-patriotic ideals cannot be reasoned with. They are a dangerous lot with the Becks and specifically the Palins at the helm of this "movement".
Em.
(I guess it took this for me to stop lurking)
Em, feel free to lurk! But it is also nice to hear from readers. Thanks for your thoughts. I've found that I'm not jaded but more annoyed, deeply upset by events like this. You are right, this lot can not be reasoned with, I'm afraid.
"...We consider domestic terrorism done by the hands of a white person (if it were a minority it'd be considered terrorism or something worse) to be freedom of speech. Its no doubt in my mind that this guy was encouraged by the violent hate speech of the republicans..."
I find this quite disturbing: first, the finger-pointing at Republicans, and second, the overlooked fact that mentally ill people ARE a minority.
So we already see advice to feel well about mental illness by various people, including professional scientists:
http://blogs.plos.org/neuroanthropology/2011/01/15/jared-loughner-has-a-violence-problem-not-a-mental-health-problem/
and people having mental issues:
http://autisticcats.blogspot.com/2011/01/conversations-we-should-and-shouldnt-be.html
So I guess that if not now, then in several years it will be impossible to impose on mentally ill people any ban that is not imposed also on everybody else.
@Maya, exactly, the ban should be for everyone b/c it is impossible to know who is mentally ill or not.
The rhetoric coming from Tea Party rallies is pretty scary. Are they 100 percent responsible for the shooting? No, but the language they allow is irresponsible. The Tea Party movement is a ticking time bomb. Politicians like Michelle Bachman are so angry, so extreme, no wonder why people are screaming about their constitutional rights yet they don't even understand that social security or medicaid is paid for by the govt and decry socialism in the same breath. They are the worst conbination of angry and ignorant.
Each culture has its flaws, and they are very difficult to overcome because they have deep roots.
I think the attitude to guns is one of the flaws of US culture. I think a good beginning would be to force every person wishing to buy a gun to have a thorough mental health evaluation, at his own expense.
Tea Party scares me most with its isolationism. Every time USA have gone isolationist, the world has gone crazy. However, Obama isn't much better in this respect. A quote from my favourite Egyptian blog shows well what I mean:
"It was 5 years ago that the proud nation of Egypt was going through its parliamentary elections, the first in forever with any semblance of fairness... Democracy was on the tip of everybody’s tongue, and the whole world seemed to be invested in making it happen, thanks to the strong resolve of one man in power everyone likened to an idiot monkey, who - with the help of 300,000 of his own soldiers in a nearby country - put the pressure and fear of God in the hearts of those who ruled us. That man was George W. Bush, and today, I miss him so. You see, today a different guy is in charge. A man with a smooth tongue but very few principles, who changed the name of the game forever. Democracy was no longer the topic of conversation, but rather relegated to that of an after-thought. As strategic objectives go, it was no longer a priority. Stability, real politick, friendships with life-long dictators were the new objectives. The American people wanted it that way, or so it seemed to us, when they voted him into the White House. They just wanted to be liked instead of feared, and they ended up with neither. And they lost whatever respect that people had for them along the way."
I of course feel better than this blogger, because Milosevic was bombed away by Americans years ago, and Bulgaria is already in the EU which - for all its flaws - provides a sort of a safety net. If the current situation in the USA had happened 10 years ago, with Obama on one side and the Tea Party on the other, it would send shivers down my spine.
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