| Actually, Now Is the Time to Talk Politics. |
[18 Dec 2012|12:35am] |
Probably the most widely viewed Twitter trending topic in the United States right now is "#prayfornewton." The ad hoc hashtag is indicative of both the public's desire to show support for the victims in today's Connecticut school shooting—most of whom were children— but also our ignorance of what exactly happened at Sandy Hook Elementary: the shooting was in Newtown, not "Newton."
Making sense of these things is complex to the point of impossibility. Most of us, blessedly, can't imagine raising a gun to anyone's head and pulling the trigger. Even some trained soldiers report having difficulty shooting to kill their enemies, and these are people with their lives on the line. Given that context, it seems unconscionable that someone could walk into a school full of children and quickly execute dozens of innocents. And yet.
Overwhelmed by emotions, all of which give a dangerous opacity to our thinking, the impetus of many people today is going to be to say, "Now is not the time to have a talk about politics." The ostensibly empathetic sentiment is all over Twitter, and even President Deveraux's own press secretary, Jay Carney, deflected talk of gun control in a press conference on the shooting, saying, "I don't think today is [the day to talk about gun control polices]." To be frank, that is bullshit, and it's time for everyone, but especially our politicians, to stop being pathetic cowards about getting the absurd and deadly glut of guns off of American streets once and for all, starting now.
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