Small Town Therapist on Stopping Senseless Violence

When despair for the world grows in me ....

I have always been amazed and then saddened about people being unwilling to perceive a problem when it is staring them in the face. I too like poet Wendell Berry have used nature as my solace and comfort but instead of just passively lying down I choose to act as well, "when the despair for the world grows in me."

All of this, despair started back in 2018 when our inept, unfit, corrupt #45 and now #47 ignored and did nothing about the slaughter in Florida, at the stoneman Douglas High School.

When despair for the world grows in me 

and I wake in the night at the least sound 

in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be, 

I go and lie down where the wood drake 

rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.

I wrote this paragraph in 2018 and it rings true today.

I have been so impressed by the very young adults from Stoneman Douglas high school who have stood up the adults in this country with their articulate demand for gun control. It's not going to take a village, it is going to take a country united against the slaughter of innocents. I am deeply saddened that it's taken the deaths of 17 more innocents [by another lone young white man apparently a white supremacist sympathizer] to rally and take a strong stand against the NRA. Was it the adults? No, it was the young high school students who are taking the strong stand against the NRA. They are unafraid of that organization and are calling out the politicians who are the NRA's toadies--- bowing and scraping for the generous bloody handouts. 

“They say that tougher gun laws do not decrease gun violence — we call B.S.!” she continued as a chorus of supporters echoed her. “They say a good guy with a gun stops a bad guy with a gun — we call B.S.! They say guns are just tools like knives and are as dangerous as cars — we call B.S.! They say that no laws could have been able to prevent the hundreds of senseless tragedies that have occurred — we call B.S.! That us kids don’t know what we’re talking about, that we’re too young to understand how the government works — we call B.S.!”                      Emma Gonzales a student at Stoneman Douglas H.S. founder of March For Our Lives

They have called B.S. on the "it's not time to talk about guns... it's time to grieve". As Emma said, "this is how we grieve, we want action on gun control!"

Keep in mind that these mass murders do not happen in other countries, especially first world ones. Australia hasn't had a mass murder since they banned assault weapons in 1997. They are appalled at our lack of guts to ban assault weapons. And don't give me the line about mental illness, as someone pointed out "interestingly, many women have mental illness and yet 98% of the mass murders in this country are male" who have easy assess to guns.

To turn this around, I'd like to focus on neighborliness. Then all of our issues become much clearer. This will require a generosity of heart and thought. There are those who are literally afraid of neighborliness, they are red hot to label this thinking as socialist or communist. Please ignore the mean-spirit that runs amok in the country and in the world. Instead let's focus on what happens when there is a natural disaster and then apply it to the disaster of the current national gun/murder crisis. 

In Houston, as well as in the other hurricane ravaged cities, during and then after the flood there were so many stories of ordinary citizens and enormous help from the Mexican neighbors who came to rescue their fellow neighbors, humans and animals alike. Some risked their lives for these others by treating all of them as their neighbors. So on a personal level this is how we must treat our country with the same courage and neighborliness.   

Neighbor, we can turn things around, joining forces for good. Surely no one wants more children to die due to inaction. World wide, until very recently, the U.S. was know for it's generosity and kindness. We were loved not feared. For example, 2016 and right now, many U.S. women started the Woman's March and also the No Kings in part to protest the current administration and in part to stand up proudly for women's rights. Then I watched in awe as the Woman's March was held world wide with millions of participants who joined us and there was No violence. Millions. We are a force for good. Today I, and many millions of people across this country and in the world, are marching with many organizations fighting against authoritarianism. 

Kindness doesn't cost a cent, but it pays rich dividends. Susan R. Grout

There are many ways to practice neighborliness. The personal hero is important but because of this crisis ---our children being slaughtered--- we must also require the private sector, the politicians, the corporations, the government, the churches, and the press all being involved in being neighborly. When everybody has a stake in maintaining a viable, healthy community and country, the caring at a deeper level can bring emotional maturity. Emotional maturity means that you step up to the responsibility of helping your neighbor and your neighbor's children.  Good models of neighborliness and maturity come from the prophets and Jesus himself: "love your neighbor as yourself," "love one another." No exceptions. By ignoring or trivializing this important issue of gun control, "you are in our thoughts and prayers!" trivializes the depth of grief of those who have lost a child to a gun. That is an acute case of inaction, this issue requires action. It's discouraging that people feel ok, merely thinking, rather than taking up a solution. 

Neighborliness is key. Do take it personally.  Getting caught up in an abstract discussion with labels takes energy away from what our real concerns ought to be: a healthy, caring, prosperous, respectful, successful nation filled with healthy, educated citizens and especially--- loved and cared for children.

Then filled with this passion to be good neighbors, we must act, and for God's sake, do not let the matter drop. Right now, there is movement afoot all over this country. There are marches all across the country against this wanna be dictator.  Let's also include marching against the nearly deaf NRA who care more about money and are not about helping.

If you are interested in gun control here are several groups devoted to doing something about stopping the carnage, so here's where to put your donations: Moms Demand Action, Every town for Gun Safety, the Brady Campaign, the Washington Coalition for Gun Control are just a few of the organizations. The Democrats have presented many bills for gun control, always obstructed and voted down by the Republicans. The Democrats too deserve your support if you care about the children of this country.

Vote, recruit your friends and family to take up the cause for action. Be kind to your neighbor, volunteer, take good care of yourself. A nice way to do this is to forest bathe or just take a walk and smile at your neighbors. You never know who is going to need your help. Love is always welcome, neighbor.

The Peace of Wild Things

By  Wendell Berry 

When despair for the world grows in me 

and I wake in the night at the least sound 

in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be, 

I go and lie down where the wood drake 

rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.

I come into the peace of wild things 

who do not tax their lives with forethought 

of grief. I come into the presence of still water. 

And I feel above me the day-blind stars 

waiting with their light. For a time 

I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

Wendell Berry, "The Peace of Wild Things" from The Selected Poems of Wendell Berry. Copyright © 1998. Published and reprinted by arrangement with Counterpoint Press

susansmagicfeather 2018 copyright Susan R. Grout all rights reserved

On Promoting Positive Changes

Another terrorist attack this time in San Bernardino, Ca. and my greatest fear is that the nation will fall asleep yet again and do nothing. It is going to take a huge concerted effort to change this country's mind set from the hopeless/helpless mode into the activitist mode but I believe it can be done.

After the tragedy in Roseburg, Oregon I saw that it's necessary to point out how inadequate our discussion of gun control truly is. I was surprised to read that the spokes person for the NRA wrote an article in the Seattle Times proclaiming that it is not the guns, but the mentally ill who are doing all the killing and we need better care for them. Well, yes, that is partly true. This was certainly not true of the terrorist couple in San Bernardino. On the other hand it is hand guns, assault rifles, machine guns and guns left unlocked in people's homes that are killing our children and citizens. It is not one thing that accounts for all these tragedies. Many changes must be made. It is not an "either/or" argument but a both/and statement. 

Here is the part that is correct: we do need more protection for all our citizens from the violent mentally ill with suicidal tendencies. Here is the part pointedly omited: we need, today, to get rid of the assault weapons, and the machine guns and we need stronger background checks and we need to make it mandatory that every citizen who owns a gun have it properly locked up. So many preventable accidents have happened because guns were carelessly available to children and depressed or violent individuals. What is so frightening about having background checks in place? Why on earth does any citizen need to own an assault rifle or a machine gun? Think people, why does the NRA bribe politicians? who do you suppose are the biggest donaters and promoters of the NRA? Why,  it would be the arms manufacturers! What a stunning suprise! If the NRA and all it's members are so passionate about "it's all the fault of the mentally ill" exactly where are their enormous financial contributions to prevention and treatment programs for the mentally ill? I ask you. Surprised again?

I find it unbelievably sad that one of the richest countries in the world incarcerates the mentally ill in jails all over our country. Ask anyone who works in the prisons and they'll tell you that there are many inmates who just don't belong there. First up are the mentally ill who stop taking their medications and then awful things ensue from them or to them. Mostly they get taken advantage of and get arrested for being out of line. They truly are out of line and out of their minds but no one is asking, that's too complicated. What do we do with them? Into the slammer they go where the possibility of treatment is zilch. No treatment at all. This is not only sad but nutty if you do a cost analysis. [google and see what several years ago Connecticut's Governor concluded]. This has to stop. The truth is a tiny percent of the people who are mentally are dangerous and violent. Still we, thanks to starting with the Reagan administration, are ignoring prevention, intervention and treatment programs for the mentally ill.  Why is no one addressing this issue?  Out of sight out of mind, really simplistic thinking for an otherwise advanced society.

So happily the NRA is going to put their money where their mouth is, right? They claim they are concerned, so it only makes logical sense that they would step up. Right?

Speaking of concern exactly what, if anything, is going on in the heads of many people who value the lives of some animals over the lives of people? These individuals went cuckoo when the picture of the magnificent Cecil the lion was murdered in Africa by the smug dentist and wanted ACTION NOW for that horrible event. [It was sickening...]Yet where are they with all that energy to aid in the fight against the mass murders right here, right now in our own country of innocent people, even children? Is it because it's people and not animals that are being murdered? Surely we have evolved with enough emotional maturity to have some empathy for human suffering. How is praying for the families and then supporting the NRA, or the people who are beholden to the NRA not a travesty?

This can be changed. If the Aussies can do it we can too. It's been almost 20 years since they have had a terrorist attack in their country. They outlawed assault weapons. Who is going to stand up to the NRA, the arms manufacturers?  Clearly we can't count on the politicians who are accepting "donations" from them.  What is needed is outlawing assault weapons, outlawing any future gun that can rapidly maim or kill people, insisting on background checks, allowing for a 72 hour wait period, at least.

What gives with the vehemence and cruelty denying those of us who would prefer some order and sense in dealing with guns instead of this outmoded 19th century old west approach? It shouldn't shock you to know when cars were new in the early part of the last century there was a terrible fight to have no speed limits, no stop signs, no traffic cops...surely you see where I'm going with this. A car can be a lethal weapon and needs to be regulated and those who misuse their privilege are punished. So tell me why this cannot apply to guns? This is 2015, 100 years after the fight for traffic/automobile rules and regulations. We need something this definitive for the entire gun industry and we are going to have to demand it.

Those of you who are in the state of  Washington, please join me in support of the Washington Alliance for Gun Responsibility with a check. But all of us need to take action. One way is to text 64433, it is for the organization called "Everytown" They state,  "Today and every day we come together to say: WE CAN end gun violence". Please do this, we can't just give up. That is hopeless/helpless thinking and just exactly where abusive people want you to be. Here is a good article about the NRA: Mother Jones piece, “The NRA is Losing Its Grip on Power.”

I just got this update that the US Senate just voted down 2 strong gun bills.  Contact these legislators, tell them they are on notice. Next, encourage them to take MANY steps to eliminate violence and senseless death by guns in this country. Tell them, "the repercussion for these unethical acts, against the will of the people, is that we will donate to your opponents in the next election." 

about to blow my top over the inactivity on the gun issues.

susansmagicfeather copyright 2015 Susan R. Grout all rights reserved