More mass shootings than days? If there wasn’t evidence that this problem has escalated beyond “abnormal”, there is now. The simple math is that the U.S has averaged more than one mass shooting a day. Yesterday is evidence enough for this. Just think of the pointless sacrifice of human life resulting from these violent acts. What is troubling is that, at this point, people are still talking of arms policies, and arms restrictions and whatnot. These would not solve the problem. You have been talking about the same arms policies since 2016. Isn’t it time to wake up and realize that this isn’t the problem? This isn’t the solution. Don’t waste your time or energy pointing fingers at your lawmakers. Wake up! Point your blame at the DANGEROUS RHETORIC currently so commonplace in the system.
Dangerous rhetoric is for this purpose defined as speech with the tendency, due to its influence and content, to induce violent and hateful dispositions in listeners. The violence has always been there, but ask your selves, why is it peaking? Research shows that recent political developments may be behind the increase in domestic violence.
A “racist” president? While I have my reservations on “tagging”, I honestly couldn’t find a better word (I searched three online thesauruses). The only other way to phrase it was with “discriminatory”, and that’s a perfect case of “potato, potato”. It may surprise you that I am not an American. However, I am an admirer of America’s global leadership and engagement. The world is better today because of it. So, when this leadership is undermined, it’s a source of concern. The rising divisiveness and dangerous rhetoric undermine and threaten your moral leadership, virtues, and ideals. The point I am making is that the tone and oratory which more than a few politicians have adopted has made white supremacists and hate groups comfortable with their views, increasing their disposition to express their “opinions”. The result is violence because there is no other way to express hatred of this kind.
The message I am giving today is that knowing how you got into a mess is usually the only way to get out of it. People need to identify the true cause of this hatred and violence. They need to tackle the problem from the roots. Some weeds need to be uprooted roots and all. Discrimination is one such weed. How you decide to tackle discrimination is up to you, but it needs to be tackled. Decisively. I will share my ideas on that in a second post.
I’ll leave you with this. I’ve heard and read about the American dream. Put simply (which earnestly is not possible) encodes freedom, prosperity, and success. It’s one of the most inspiring ideas conceived by mankind- second only to democracy. I always think, “this should be a world dream”.
Stop dreaming. Wake up. Make it real. Do something real.
References
The Washington Post: An expert on ‘dangerous speech’ explains how Trump’s rhetoric and the recent spate of violence are and aren’t linked ( https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2018/10/29/professor-who-defined-dangerous-speech-how-trumps-rhetoric-pittsburgh-are-linked/?utm_term=.5d131de50d8e)
National public radio: How Dangerous Is Divisive Political Rhetoric? (https://www.npr.org/2018/10/29/661676082/how-dangerous-is-divisive-political-rhetoric)
The Guardian: Most Americans believe politicians’ heated rhetoric can lead to violence, report finds (https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jun/19/americans-politicians-aggressive-rhetoric-violence-report)
"Do it with passion, or not at all."- Rosa Nochette Carey 