A different kind of power
The shooting of the innocent happens regularly in this country. But what happened at Charleston’s Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church feels uniquely evil. Nine African Americans attending a Wednesday evening prayer meeting were systematically executed by a 20-year-old white man.
Why would anyone do such a thing? President Obama sounded weary and resigned as he reminded us, once again, that “every country has violent, hateful, or mentally unstable people,” but only the United States allows easy access to guns. There have been 14 mass killings during his presidency, but President Obama’s effort to galvanize public opinion after the Sandy Hook school killings in Newtown, Connecticut, produced nothing but a national yawn, and Senate efforts to come up with meaningful gun controls produced absolutely nothing.
What is it about us that is causing the unthinkable to happen regularly? Why are so many white males so obsessed with guns and gun ownership that lawmakers are allowing them to buy, carry, and display firearms almost everywhere? Some suggest that in this time of economic turmoil, male self-esteem is the issue. Yet we survived the Great Depression and massive unemployment without anything like this kind of violence.
