Lax laws, powerful lobbyists make massacres frequent

How long, O Lord, how long?

The latest American mass shooting, which killed 19 children and two teachers in a school in Uvalde, Texas, has parents wondering and worrying over the safety of their children and the inability of our political system to do anything about it.

The May 24 Texas shooting followed by ten days the shooting at a supermarket in Buffalo, N.Y. that killed ten. Less than halfway through 2022, America has recorded 213 mass shootings. America leads the world in mass shootings, which is a perverse way of "making America great again." Yeah, we lead the world in slaughtering children.

The usual hand wringing can be heard throughout Congress, but nearly all predictions show that the 90+ percent of the public who favor reasonable gun legislation, such as requiring background checks on persons purchasing a deadly firearm, but Congress can't seem to find enough members to even bring such legislation to the floor. 

The so-called Gun Lobby, led by the National Rifle Association, opposes any infringement on the Second Amendment, which was passed by our forebears in order to ensure the future of "a well-regulated militia." A gun lobby that allows mass shootings to continue is NOT a "well-regulated militia." Gun enthusiasts oppose all forms of restrictions or regulations on firearms. Even a simple registration and licensing system, such as is required nationwide for automobile purchases and use. Deaths by firearms have recently surpassed deaths by car crashes. Federal safety efforts have reduced the frequency of traffic deaths, but firearm deaths can't be considered by our "Congress For Sale" system as the NRA and other advocacy groups send millions of dollars to members of Congress who are willing to ignore the slaughter of American children.

Two years ago, I wrote about a proposal for a "We  the People Amendment," the gist of which is that America's sacred freedoms and rights should be reserved for America's people, not the corporations, associations, advocacy groups, or clubs. This simple amendment would put an immediate stop to the buying of Congress. Spoiler Alert: Congress will not pass a new amendment that hinders members' cash flow.

The First Amendment ensures a person's right to petition the government for a redress of grievances, but that right should not extend to labor unions, fraternal organizations, corporations, partnerships or clubs, only to living, breathing humans. Implementation of this amendment would stop lobbyists from controlling legislation. It would require individuals from both the left and right to do their own lobbying. And it would no longer allow members of Congress to ignore the will of the people in favor of lobbyists, the Gun Lobby, Big Oil, Big Pharma, and all the other pressure groups that have adjusted to the current system. The attack ads that take over television, Internet and social media each election cycle would rapidly wither away, banned from supporting the interests of organizations that are not human beings.

The "We The People Act" would not solve all the problems we face, but it would at least put the people on a level with the deep-pocketed organizations that oppose actions the general public — the humans — favor.

Politicians would have less reason to cuddle with the Gun Lobby and more reason to aid the grieving parents whose children have been sacrificed to the well-heeled Gun Lobby and other, similar non-human forces perverting the First Amendment.

Elephants, in memory and literature

Three days after the funeral for Ron Taylor, the New York Times posted an article that made me think of Ron, a church musician, amateur actor and playwright and fiction writer, who had helped establish the Wilson Writers Group. Perhaps the most significant accomplishment in the few years that Ron was part of the writers’ group was the publication of his children’s book, titled “The Day Buttercup Played Hooky From the Circus.” He said the idea of the book simply came to him, unbidden, one day, and he wrote it down. Often humorous, the book can appeal to adults as well as children.

My introduction to the Writers Group in 2017 included a presentation by  Dawn Reno Langley, a successful N.C. writer who offered advice to the aspiring authors in the public library’s assembly room. Ms. Langley’s book, “The Mourning Parade,” focuses on elephants in an elephant sanctuary in Thailand. Natalie DeAngelo packs up her life and heads to Thailand as a volunteer veterinarian, hoping to assuage her anguish over the senseless deaths of her two sons back in the United States. The novel portrays elephants as sensate, emotional creatures with highly developed social and familial organization.

The New York Times on Wednesday published an article about a video showing a group of elephants joining together in the wild to mourn with members of their herd, going so far as lifting up a deceased calf to carry to a place for burial.

The newspaper article certainly validates Ms. Langley’s view of elephants as sentient, wise creatures with principles of caring and group mourning similar to humans’ practices.

Ron’s children’s book is simpler than either Ms. Langley’s novel or the N.Y. Times’ fascinating report on elephant behavior. “Buttercup” is about a circus elephant who slips away from his handler. The little boy standing nearby becomes the elephant’s handler, and the two go on a mid-morning hike through town with hilarious results.

Ron would love to know that even the N.Y. Times agrees that elephants are intelligent, thinking, loving animals who have emotions much like our own. “The Mourning Parade” in Langley’s book title refers to the reaction of sanctuary elephants when an elephant died. Ron’s book was not based on hours or years of research; it was based on love and humor that came from his creative imagination.

As elephants disappear from circuses and zoos, leave it to writers like Dawn Langley and Ron Taylor, and the NY Times, to remind the world that these endangered, intelligent, and loving animals are sharing this earth with us.