“OK, everybody, especially you kids.” it seemed to say, “let’s keep our voices down, this is no time to start calling people names.”
I have appreciated Brooks’s tempered arguments in the past, and even more so (coming from what seems to be his moderate Republican point of view) his disgust with Trump.
But “Respect first?” No. The proper reaction to the latest U.S. mass shooting — the horror in Parkland which left 17 people dead and 14 injured — is outrage. The voices calling for patience have been deservedly out-shouted by the likes of Emma Gonzalez, the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School senior whose impassioned speech last Saturday generated the only headline that reflects current political realities:
“I call B.S.!”
She called B.S. on the mental health argument, given that Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley and President Trump have stifled measures that would have helped prevent people with mental health issues from purchasing a gun. She called B.S. on the someone-should-have-reported-him argument; somebody, many somebodies did. She called B.S. on U.S. politicians’ nothing-can-be-done argument; Australia, for instance, instituted strict gun laws in the wake of a 1996 mass shooting, and no such shootings have happened there since.
But reading on in the Brooks column, I saw the point he was making, however tone-deaf the headline. It had to do with a nonprofit called Better Angels that brings together groups of Republicans and Democrats across the country for structured conversations in which they try to confront and explode the stereotypes that are driving us apart.
So yes, a good first step toward effecting positive change is not to demonize the opposition.
But the anger is necessary, too. It may be hard to maintain both — anger at self-interested legislators, at deep-pocketed gun lobbyists, at gun owners who refuse compromise, and respect for all of them as fellow human beings who deserve to be heard. But proceeding with passion and compassion — and persistence — is our best course.
The passion of Emma Gonzalez and her classmates (who, by the way, were almost immediately demonized by the far-right gun-rights crowd as naive mouthpieces or paid actors) is vital. I hope it lasts. The conventional wisdom about the protests in the wake of Parkland is that “This time it’s different” — that the vocal groundswell of activism among eloquent, take-no-shit teens like Gonzalez is drawing attention to the cause of gun safety as no mass shooting has ever done.
But the challenge now is keeping this effort going. It’s been a week since Parkland as I write this, and already the risk is that our attention will drift, that new headlines will take over — until the next shooting, when we’ll look back ruefully at the students’ hashtagged vow, NeverAgain. So now we all have to step up — not just the students. We all have to follow the money and explain in no uncertain terms to our legislators that we won’t vote for them if their addiction to campaign contributions from the NRA and GOA (Gun Owners of America) undermines their duty to their constituents and their own moral convictions.
Passion, communication and relentless action: That’s a recipe that has successfully been employed by Nadine Smith in her fight for LGBTQ rights as executive director of Equality Florida. Now she’s bringing her powerful voice to a nationwide grass-roots effort, #NoNRAMoney. Speaking last weekend on MSNBC’s AM Joy show with Joy Reid, she explained the initiative,.
“The students are saying it in the most compelling way,” she told Reid. “They’ve said that politicians have abandoned us and we demand better. We have failed young people by letting the NRA dictate policy all across this country and block the things that we know work to save lives.
“So NoNRAMoney is two things,” she went on. “It is a pledge by candidates that they will not accept NRA money or support, and it is a pledge by voters that we will vote against any candidate who takes even a penny from the NRA.
“We think this is the moment the tide changes.”
Perhaps. Even the president is making noises about mild gun restrictions, reviving discussion of a ban on bump stocks like the ones used in the Las Vegas massacre last October (better late than never, I guess). But the Parkland students visiting Tallahassee on Tuesday got an immediate introduction to the intransigence of FL legislators when Republicans blocked a discussion of an assault weapons ban from even reaching the floor. Not a surprise from the august body that has repeatedly refused to hear any gun-control bills (especially if filed by Democrats) and has continued to allow 18-year-olds to buy semi-automatic weapons without a waiting period.
That may change. There’s talk of raising that age to 21 (which is how old you have to be in Florida to buy a handgun) and of expanding background checks. But Parkland’s Democratic State Rep., Jared Moskowitz — one of the most anguished public figures in the wake of the shooting, which took place at his alma mater — told the Tampa Bay Times he believes his fellow legislators will do exactly “nothing.”
Which means we have to keep doing everything. May I suggest you start with a visit to nonramoney.org? And while you’re at it, check out Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America and Everytown for Gun Safety, who joined forces to take out a two-page, reportedly $230,000 ad in the New York Times that includes a handy guide to which Senators and U.S. Representatives have taken money from the NRA, and how much. Fun fact: You’ve already heard about the million-plus bucks the NRA has dropped in Marco Rubio’s lap, but did you know that Sarasota Congressman Vern Buchanan has received almost $20,000? The same Vern Buchanan who’s running for re-election this fall and whose son, James, just lost his quest for a State house seat to Democrat Margaret Good?
“These members of Congress take NRA money, but refuse to take action to pass gun safety legislation,” says the ad. “If they won’t act, it’s up to us to elect leaders who will.”
Now there’s an NYT headline I can get behind.
This article appears in Feb 15-22, 2018.