The story about the tragic shooting of 70 people in a movie theatre continues in the news. So does our mainstream American society's cultural denial about the kind of nation in which we live.
In the immediate aftermath, Colorado Governor Hickenlooper made a statement. His voice quaking with disbelief and shock, he said, "Aurora is a safe city. Colorado is a safe state. We live in a safe nation." How, he was in effect, can something like this massacre happen here." He later called the shootings that took place during a screening of the newest Batman movie an "act that defies description."
He must live in an alternative dimension or universe, because if there is anything true about our nation, it is that in many ways we are NOT safe, and mass shootings such as the assault on movie-goers are so common as to be un-suprising, not an "act that defies description."
And normal. Think about that. When hurricanes or tornadoes kill, we may mourn, but they are normal events in nature which we accept. In the aftermath of mass killings, many realize that since other nations have deterred gun violence, the U.S. ought to be able do, also, We talk about gun control schemes, but powerful interests keep them from becoming law, so we are forced to accept our high murder rate as normal, unpredictable as the weather, and there's nothing we can do about it except gather together in the aftermath to help the victims. And then we retreat into denial, until the next calamity.
To refresh the memory of Gov. Hickenlooper and others like him, here is a listing of only some of the mass murders, from a blog posting by Darcy Burner entitled, "An Adult Conversation About Guns":
On January 17, 1989, a gunman in Stockton, California walked onto a playground and opened fire, killing 5 children and injuring 30 more.
On July 1, 1993, a gunman in San Francisco walked into a law office and opened fire, killing 8 and injuring 6.
On April 20, 1999, two gunmen in Columbine, Colorado walked into their high school and opened fire, killing 13 people and injuring 21 others.
On January 16, 2002, a gunman in Virginia walked into a law school and opened fire, killing 3 and injuring 3.
On July 8, 2003, a gunman in Mississippi walked into a factory and opened fire, killing 6 and injuring 8.
On March 21, 2005, a gunman in Minnesota walked into a high school and opened fire, killing 7 and injuring 5.
On November 20, 2005, a gunman in Tacoma walked into the mall and opened fire, injuring 6.
On March 25, 2006, a gunman in Seattle walked into a party and opened fire, killing 6 and injuring 2.
On February 12, 2007, a gunman in Utah walked into a mall and opened fire, killing 5 and injuring 4.
On April 16, 2007, a gunman in Virginia walked onto the Virginia Tech campus and opened fire, killing 32 people and wounding 17 others.
On December 5, 2007, a gunman in Nebraska walked into a mall and opened fire, killing 8 and injuring 4.
On December 9, 2007, a gunman in Colorado Springs walked onto a church parking lot and opened fire, killing 2 and wounding 3.
On February 7, 2008, a gunman in Missouri walked into a city council meeting and opened fire, killing 5 and wounding 2.
On February 14, 2008, a gunman in Illinois walked onto a college campus and opened fire, killing 5 and injuring 17.
On June 25, 2008, a gunman in Kentucky walked into a factory and opened fire, killing 5 and injuring 1.
On January 24, 2009, a gunman in Portland walked up to a nightclub and opened fire, killing 2 and injuring 7.
On March 29, 2009, a gunman in North Carolina walked into a retirement home and opened fire, killing 8 and injuring 2.
On August 4, 2009, a gunman in a suburb of Pittsburgh walked into a fitness club and opened fire, killing 3 and injuring 9.
On November 5, 2009, a gunman at Fort Hood in Texas walked into a medical center and opened fire, killing 13 and injuring 29.
On November 29, 2009, a gunman in Lakewood, Washington walked into a coffee shop and killed 4 police officers.
On January 7, 2010, a gunman in St Louis walked into a power plant and opened fire, killing 3 and injuring 6.
On January 12, 2010, a gunman in Georgia walked into a truck rental place and opened fire, killing 3 and injuring 2.
On February 12, 2010, a gunwoman in Alabama stood up in a college faculty meeting and opened fire, killing 3 and injuring 3.
On August 3, 2010, a gunman in Connecticut walked into a warehouse and opened fire, killing 8 and injuring 2.
On August 7, 2011, a gunman in Ohio broke into his girlfriend’s house and opened fire, killing 7 and injuring 1.
On September 6, 2011, a gunman in Nevada walked into a pancake restaurant and opened fire, killing 4 and injuring 7.
On October 5, 2011, a gunman in Cupertino, California walked into a quarry where people were working and opened fire, killing 3 and injuring 7.
These tragedies make national news, especially the ones with the highest body counts.
What is missing from this list and Gov. Hickenlooper's mindset are the shootings of Black and Hispanic people--mostly young men and children--every day in our inner cities. Most are killed by other Black and Hispanic young men, but police officers and security workers add to the death toll significantly. Many of these killings, which greatly outnumber the number of whites murdered, are never reported for more than 30 seconds on local evening news, and some not at all. Even when these shootings are of multiple people, almost none make national news. But they and the families that loved them count as victims, too, except that
Violence has become a major and ubiquitous part of the American popular culture, and has always been a factor in it. Films portraying violence are as old as the film industry, especially in Westerns and crime movies, which are among the most viewed. The "good guys" (and even some of the "bad guys") were glamorized in the movies, and war was portrayed as heroic.
Before the late 1960's, when a character on the screen was shot, there was little or no blood from the "wound." Many of my peers who fought in Korea and Vietnam went off to war with a subconscious belief that when someone got shot, he would get up when the director said "Cut," and go off to be in another movie. Even if the hero was shot in the final reel, little blood was seen, and he would die almost peacefully, with his buddies around him.
That combination of glorifying war and hiding the reality of blood and suffering that comes with real war, conditioned millions of young men to look forward to fighting in a war. They were conditioned by movies to be blinded to the gory, de-humanizing, and immoral realities of war.
In 1969, Director Sam Peckinpah directed a Western called "The Wild Bunch" with the goal of showing some of those realities, most pointedly of the blood and viscera that came from gunshots. This he did, using realistic effects and a lot of slow motion. From that point onward, Hollywood films and even television started using realistic depictions of shootings and death.
However, if people like Peckinpah expected Americans to be repulsed or disenchanted by these depictions, they were wrong. Movie-goers now expect more and more gore and agony and death in our films, and expect television to show the same. The more realistic, the better.
This "entertainment" has further conditioned most Americans-and those tainted by American culture--to be more jaded about killings, instead of being horrified by it. That is why we are so accepting of deaths in the inner city. That is why we feel nothing when "only" thousands die in a war, famine, or natural disaster; we only take suffering somewhat seriously when TENS of thousands or more die (although the darker the skin color of the people, the less we care, even if millions die, as in Somalia). That is why we are accepting of the new policies of "rendition" and torture, and using an array of drones, piloted by people thousands of miles away
The "boot camps" of our armed services spend weeks molding civilians into soldiers. Recruits are subjected to verbal and physical Pavlovian conditioning so they become proud "killing machines" which kill on command. Another component of our violent culture--that affects pre-teens to young men--is the popularity of "games" based upon killing--sometimes monsters, but very often human beings. Recognition as a high scorer and status among players are the rewards for becoming a deadly killer of images that become more life-like every season. These games are played over and over for hours on end in the family home, which de-sensitizes our children to killing. Although the majority have never used this conditioning our children and youth to shoot and hack and bomb people to death, but many of the rampages listed above were committed by teens or men who used what they had learned and practiced to actually kill. For example, one expert observed that Seung-Hui Cho, who killed 32 people at Virginia Tech, performed like a trained professional, an expert shot. "He had a 60% fatality rate with handguns," according to a professor of Criminology.
A final area of our violence-filled entertainment is the collecting of guns, both as hobbies and for shooting targets or hunting. Millions of Americans own rifles and shotguns for hunting, and pistols for self-defence, but the guns most passionately defended by arms manufacturers and the rest of the "gun lobby" are military-quality assault rifles. These are guns designed for no reason except to kill people. The type of ammunition and magazines that can hold scores of bullets are of no use for hunting, except hunting men, women, and children, as happened at the Aurora theater July 20, 20012.
This madness must stop. It will not be stopped by political leaders, because they are afraid of the consequences from the Gun Lobby. It will not come from weapons manufacturers, because our corporation-run system is only interested in profits, not people. It will not come from gun enthusiasts who practically deifies the gun as if it were a religious symbol rather than a lethal weapon.
Two things are needed for real, deep, and positive change,
First, people must rediscover the power of organized citizens to effect not just change, but transformation. This is called "democracy"--"people rule." The Occupy/99% Movement is a good start in this.
Second, the United States has clearly lost its moral compass, not just with this issue, but with nearly all of the culture. Racism, economic un-equality, environmental destruction, immoral entertainment, too much power in the hands of too few, justice-for-sale, impure foodstuffs, religious bigotry, militarism--the list goes on an on. The United States is in such deep trouble, that only Islam can change it. Muslim Americans have the opportunity to organize, plan, strategize, and act as groups, as masjids, and in a national network, to be unified as an Ummah. We need to agree on principles and solutions, and work with non-Muslims through "People Power" methods to change the heart of America, so that Allah (SWT) can heal us.
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