Perspectives

From where I write offers an expansive view of my backyard. This past Monday morning, the squirrels ran themselves giddy as a prelude to mating. My cat watched patiently, and my hens were indifferent. Life goes on.

Six slaughtered people are eulogized. We’re horrified, or so we say. But are we? Really? Is anyone surprised about the events in Tucson? What is surprising or novel or new about yet another deranged gunman attempting an execution? In this instance, an American congresswoman? The “collateral damage” included a sparkling child and a federal judge. Nothing particularly novel in killing a politician. We Americans do that with some regularity. Life goes on.

Movie director Michael Moore made a cogent observation that if a Muslim group had put out on the Internet (like Sarah Palin did) various liberal congressional districts marked in the crosshairs (of a gun?) and a congresswoman was subsequently attacked, all hell would break loose. Palin’s spokeswoman said on Jan. 9 that they weren’t gun crosshairs but map crosshairs. Map crosshairs!? The backsliding resumes anew. The website has been taken down. The backsliding resumes anew. And life goes on.

Sharon Engle, the Nevada Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate, was caught on tape encouraging her disaffected constituents to exercise their Second Amendment rights if necessary. Do you imagine that was to join the National Guard? It is radio personality and rightwing hero Glenn Beck who regularly cites Thomas Jefferson’s famous quote, “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.” Where would Congresswoman Gabriel Giffords fall in Beck’s value system? Patriot or tyrant? It’ll be good for ratings nonetheless. And life goes on.

Accused murderer Jared L. Loughner attempted to enter the U.S. military but was screened out. He was turned down for active service. The reason? He had “issues”. Jared L. Loughner subsequently purchased a handgun in Arizona, a state where no background checks are required — no state permits either. Imagine that. The U.S. military, where guns are the norm, says no thank you to Jared L. Loughner because he has issues, but the state of Arizona requires nothing when “a man with issues” purchases a handgun. And six die. Life goes on.

My sister Sandra has observed on numerous occasions, “We’re nasty little monkeys.” And in the name of freedom, we’ll place nominal obstacles (in Arizona even less than nominal) for nasty little monkeys (that’s us, folks) to own weapons, in this instance, of mass destruction. The ridiculous aspect of the whole debate regarding guns and the freedom to own them is there are, by some estimates, nearly 300 million weapons already in circulation in America. Close the gate? What gate? Whether or not Jared L. Loughner could have been identified as an individual with “issues” and denied the opportunity to purchase a handgun, he could have simply walked into virtually any sporting goods store in America and have purchased a pump shotgun. Saw off the barrel, load up and refresh the tree of liberty. And life goes on.

We’ll mourn the dead. For a while. But life goes on. Speaking of giddy squirrels, as U.S. House Speaker John Boehner so succinctly put it, we’ve health care to kill. Indeed.