NEWFANE — Driving home today, in my “moving office,” pondering the day's events, I began to think how people in other countries must view the American citizen.
We have not seen combat on our continent since the Civil War, yet, at this time, many Americans feel under attack.
Why? Our children go off to school in the morning, and we must wonder if there is a chance that someone will enter their school armed with a military gun, then kill them and their classmates.
This was the case on this recent snowy Monday. Normally, we should have been happy about a beautiful Vermont day.
Instead, police cruisers stood guard at every local school, keeping watch for a dangerous, angry, and armed young man.
We can chalk this up to mental-health issues, or we can say that guns don't kill, people do (or any number of other platitudes that the NRA likes to trot out). However, the rest of the world has figured out that by banning semi-automatic and automatic guns, the violence stops.
Personally, I find it appalling that NRA members can get away with their egotistical and outdated nonsense. Their arguments don't hold water and are a disgrace to a nation of highly educated, peace-loving people. I am appalled that there is not more of an outcry, that phones are not ringing off their hooks in the office of every member of Congress.
The gun lobby and the arms manufacturers they represent are making big money off these weapons. Until we all decide to protest en masse, our congressmen will hear the voices of the gun lobby loudest. Are the profits of weapons makers more valuable than the safety of our children? Today, that is how it looks to the rest of the world.
We all need to take responsibility. Phone or email Congress. Write to the paper. Stand up, and express your anger. Your voice does matter, and your dollars matter.
Make yourself heard, America, or we will continue to be the strange country where democracy reigns, but 5- and 6-year-old children die while trying to learn how to read.