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Lead marchers in the Tucson March for Our Lives, eight thousand strong.

March for Our Lives

Justice Building in America

by Craig Rock

Young people of America found their voice on March 24, 2018. The day will go down in history as a day of remembrance and resistance for students who lost their friends, and for families who lost their children, at Columbine (1999), Virginia Tech (2007), Sandy Hook Elementary (2012), Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School (2018), and in thousands of neighborhoods across America where gun killings have been out of control, with assailants ranging from lone gunmen, to gang members, and sometimes to the police themselves.

Enough is Enough

The day will also go down in history as the beginning of an era when youth will lead their parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts, and just about everyone else in shouts and slogans, all with really one message, "Enough is Enough." And if the shouts are not heard, history books will also record it as the beginning of the end to many political careers, and maybe to at least one political party.

One local member of Tucson's City Council, Steve Kozachik, urges caution, stating that change will not come quickly on gun control. On the other hand, LA Times writer George Skelton reminds us, "Not many years ago, most of us would not have envisioned gay marriage, legal marijuana, public smoking bans or — two or three generations back — racial desegregation across America. When enough voters demand change in a democracy, they get it."

As UU teenager, Kari Gottfried, writes in recent article for the UUA: "Unitarian Universalism affirms the belief that every person has inherent worth and dignity. As cliché as it is, it’s always been my favorite Principle, because it’s the one I struggle with the most. How can we hold worthy the legislators who refuse to use their power to do the right thing? How can we hold worthy the powerful lobbyists at the NRA who claim the media loves mass shootings while stating that the gun violence problem in the United States is caused by something—anything—other than guns?" (Read the full article.)

You don't have to subscribe to Unitarian Universalism or any religion to realize the complicity of the multi-billion-dollar small arms industry, many lawmakers, and the NRA in the rapid rise of civilian deaths from automatic and semi-automatic gun ownership. True, this is an American problem, but it is also a problem worldwide.

There are both race and class dimensions involved as well. But this challenge should not be a competition among various groups that deal with one issue in their campaigns and fundraising materials. Poor neighborhoods in the U.S. - and in poor countries - have experienced the increase in shooting deaths of women, children and men since the rise of automatic and semi-automatic weapons and their easy availability to drug-related gangs, politically motivated death squads, and individuals with mental illness. It's time for all groups, whatever their political or social reform goals, to join together to stop these killings.

Justice for All

Gun violence in black neighborhoods caused 11-year-old Naomi Wadler to speak out at the "March for Our Lives" event in Washington: "I am here to acknowledge and represent the African-American girls whose stories don’t make the front page of every national newspaper, whose stories don’t lead on the evening news. I represent the African-American women who are victims of gun violence, who are simply statistics instead of vibrant, beautiful girls full of potential."

(Ironically, in Tucson, a few days before the march, the trial began of a border patrol agent who killed 16-year-old Jose Antonio Elena Rodriguez by shooting him ten times, mostly in the back with a semiautomatic pistol. The youth allegedly threw stones at the agent over the Nogales border wall in 2012. One popular Tucson columnist predicted the agent will walk free just like in similar shootings by regular police across the United States. The Attorney General's office, the courts, and Congress have all failed to resolve this lack of justice from the unwarranted killings by poorly trained and selected police, men and women.)

Another indicator of injustice from Congress and the President is the lack of empathy for the Dreamers and refugees from Mexico and Central America who are fleeing neighborhoods and regions controlled by drug cartels. Cartels feed the drug cravings of many Americans and operate with weapons often purchased in the United States and almost always paid for with drug profits. Cartels have not only ordered the murders of competing drug dealers but of Mexican journalists, public officials, students and other human rights defenders who work for reform in Mexico.

And it's all connected to other issues in this country affecting the poor and the disenfranchised, especially to the lack of sufficient federal and state funding for decent medical care, housing, and education. The continual theft of Native American lands by mining interests ties in here as well. A recent interview on MSNBC with Reverend Dr. William Barber, Apache leader Wendsler Nosie, and a "March for our Lives" spokesperson, Matt Post, tie these issues together nicely. Click here to hear their conversation. Also read about the recent desecration of Apache lands right here in Arizona -- see page 4 of this newsletter.

I'll end this column by paraphrasing Parker Palmer: When we go crashing through the woods shouting for the soul to come out so we help it (and it can help us), the soul will stay in hiding, but if we are willing to sit quietly and wait for a while, the soul may show itself. Well, the souls, past and present, are coming out to remind us, and to show us, how to act against gun-related injustice everywhere, including in our own backyards. Help stop gun violence, wherever you can. Watch and act as options for involvement are created by neighborhood groups, church groups, non-profits, and governmental groups.

Recommended Reading

Fully Loaded, Inside the Shadowy World of America's Ten Biggest Gunmakers,

(Mother Jones) Click Here

Elites vs Populists, The Conflict Goes Back 500 Years (LA Times) Click Here

(More March for Our Lives photos on page 3)