Because I’m a firm believer in divine intervention, I’m convinced yesterday’s decision to save my second perspective until today is divinely led. From my “Win” story which I labeled “Good News,” I share thoughts today I can only label “Not So Good News.” Yesterday and today the editorial cartoonists in the Dallas Morning News featured what I describe as poignant commentaries that speak to the brokenness of the society in which we live. In the first, four word balloons picture a woman whose captions read, “It’s getting to the point…where I have to ask myself… if it’s irresponsible as a parent…to send my children to school. In the fourth balloon she holds in her hands a newspaper that reads “Another School Shooting.” Today’s cartoon portrays a man, woman and child we assume represent a family, standing on the banks of a body of water. They have backpacks on their backs. The word balloon reads, “We can stay in Mexico where there’s unchecked violence, drugs and corruption, or we can cross to the U.S. where there’s unchecked violence, drugs, and corruption.”
Both cartoons not only give us pause but deliver that “Ouch” punch to our consciences. I can’t imagine anyone of reasonable sound mind finding anything good in either of these commentaries. Whether we’re parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, sisters, brothers, cousins, BFFs, or neighbors, we cringe when we hear the news of yet another school shooting and our eyes water when see the images of the most vulnerable among us being led out of school buildings to be reunited with their families., keenly aware of the ones not in the lines because they remain behind. They are the new statistics. I did a cursory dive into the Second Amendment and confirmed what I suspected. It has been so reinterpreted by state and federal courts over the years that it bears little resemblance to the wording of the founding fathers. I get that times change, and we make adjustments. What I don’t get is why we support interpretations that create loopholes which result in these mass shootings in places where human beings gather; where our children congregate under the auspices of dedicated educators who are usually victims also.
The irony of immigrants considering which is best – to stay where they are or cross over- is profound. Our track record of being a nation that values life no longer stands untarnished. In the glare of the times, we stand naked before a world professing truth while living a lie. That’s not good news.
You are right. The Second Amendment is not good news because of how human kind have massaged it to mean what they want it to mean. But we must find a way to acknowledge that money (given by NRA) means more to Congress members than the lives of precious children that these Congress people don’t personally know.
I believe our Founding Fathers are turning over in their graves.