Killing Fields?

Sometimes information just ups and hits you in the head! Sometimes you just cannot ignore it! Sometimes you just want to do something about it! What?

Last Sunday’s Sacramento Bee[i] ran a front-page story about the shooting and killing of children in the U.S. On February 14, 2018, a gunman entered a high school in Parkland, Florida and killed 14 students and three adults. The nation agonized and wondered why. On this anniversary of Parkland, we still wonder and we still agonize.

The Trace, a nonprofit news organization, recruited 200 journalists, many of them young people, to write short portraits of every victim, 18 years and under, who died from gun-related incidents in the last 12 months. The Bee reported about the project in a lengthy front-page article that continued to the two center pages of Section A. There you came face to face with the names of 1,200 children killed in the last 12 months by people using guns.

Think about it: ten of those children were 1-year-olds, 31 were 2 years old, and 24 were 3 years old. How many of us have children, grandchildren, or great-grandchildren in that age group?

How can this happen in a civil society? But it goes on: 17 were 4 years old, 13 were 7 years old, 107 were 15 years old, and it goes on and on. In case after case, the shooters are people who should not have been able to own guns because of their criminal background or medical history. Every time there is a school shooting, we wring our hands and say something needs to be done to tighten up the gun ownership laws. Some argue, however, that there are already too many laws on the books; they just need to be enforced. The trouble with that argument is that background checks are not required for all sales of firearms and ammunition. In most states sales between private owners, within families, or sales at gun shows do not require background checks.

A Bill passed in the House of Representatives that calls for universal background checks for all gun purchases. The NRA’s response, in the latest issue of its magazine, shows a picture of the Speaker of the House and former Congresswoman Gifford (shot in the head a few years ago) with the headline “Target Practice.”[ii] It has been roundly criticized for lack of taste and its potential to spur civil violence.

 Now the bill goes to the Senate where it doesn’t stand a snowball’s-chance-in-hell of ever coming to the floor for a vote. The Majority Leader and most of the Republican Senators are owned lock, stock, and barrel by the NRA and wouldn’t dare vote against it.

Other countries have effective gun laws that in no way would violate our Second Amendment; police investigations, doctor’s authorization, licenses to purchase ammunition, etc... Why can’t we have effective background checks as well?

Canada experienced four school shootings since 1999. The US has had 288 school shootings since 2009. Across the country, we see schools with armed guards carrying assault weapons. We see school districts wanting to arm teachers. We have active-shooter training for teachers and school kids. Children in many parts of the country are afraid to go to school. And, we wonder why? And after the next shooting, we will agonize anew.

How long are we willing to let our schools remain killing fields?

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[i] Sacramento Bee – February 17, 2018 – Kevin G. Hall

[ii] Chris W. Cox – The American Rifleman – March 2019

Voting in America

In a democracy or a republic, the people’s voice echoes from the ballot box. If you want to stifle that voice, you make it difficult to register to vote and make it difficult for people to actually vote. Somehow, after hundreds of years of trying to live up to our Founding documents, there is still a dark underbelly of American politics does not want everyone to register to vote or to, wait for it, to actually vote.

Voter suppression permeates our history. The Reconstruction Period did not end the practice, the Poll Tax limited voting, and voter registration requirements in many states precluded all who were non-White from voting. The practice still exists in many areas of our country: regulations make it difficult to register, gerrymandering guarantees the continued election of one party, polling places are limited in areas with a plurality of minority voters, and the list goes on. The young, progressive, and newly influential members of the 116^th Congress will have none of it.

The first bill introduced in Congress this year was “For the People Act of 2019 (HR-1). It calls for a national overhaul of the voting process for federal elections. It is voluminous. It seeks more than it can get. It points in the right direction. The Senate Majority Leader calls it a major power grab so it may be dead on arrival in his chamber. You see, he knows that if minorities get to vote, his party members stand a good chance of losing power. What does it contain that is so onerous? What makes it a power grab?

In the Citizens United case, the Supreme Court ruled, in simple terms, that large Political Action Committees (PACs) can funnel hundreds of millions of dollars into election campaigns without revealing the names of its contributors; dark money. HR-1 would overturn that ruling and require PACs to publish the name of anyone who contributed over $10,000.

State legislatures usually design the congressional districts for their states. As expected, they draw the districts to give ruling parties the advantage. HR-1 will require that states draw congressional districts in such a way that they represent the people in the district: race, nationality, gender, etc., the start to the elimination of gerrymandering.

Many states make it difficult to register to vote. HR-1 calls for automatic registration systems across the nation, with an opt-out provision. When the county administrators cannot control voter registration, it will change the dynamics at the polls. HR-1 will also allow all voters to update their registration online; change their name, address, or party affiliation.  

HR-1 provides for uniform early voting practices across the country. It eases the requirement to vote by mail, and outlaws the practice of paid party hacks going door to door to gather unsealed ballots in poor regions of some states.

HR-1 calls for Election Day to be designated a national holiday so that everyone has a chance to vote. It is a call for transparency and fairness in voting practices. It calls for a new awakening for the most powerful voice in the country, the vote.

How is that a power grab?