This article is/was in response to Ted Cruz’s refusal to respond to a journalist who asked him why these mass shootings happen more in America than in any other country.
If you had a son or daughter who was strung out on drugs, would you;
A) Ignore/Deny it
B) Tell them it’s easy to do/and or make excuses for them
C) Admit to yourself and them that they have a problem and try to help them overcome it.
(Remember this question and your answer to it)
A multitude of shootings have taken place, and I continuously heard people say that guns aren’t the problem the guns don’t kill people; people kill people. Well… I agree.
Why Are People Killing People?
The problem is I’ve yet to hear any other people making this statement adequately address the most obvious question stemming from that statement: WHY are people killing people?
I think to address this question effectively, we must take a step back and, instead of looking at it solely on a case-by-case basis, look at it in a broader context:
“Who” is doing these shootings? From the “thugs” in the hood to the middle-class men in the burbs to “vigilante” racists in rural areas; these people are of ALL different races, ALL different political bents, and in ALL other geographical areas and social classes, so whatever the problem is, it obviously can’t be put into the typical go-to scapegoat excuses of race, religion, class, or political bent and thus NONE of us can point and say those people are the problem because those people now live and look like ALL people in America. As a matter of fact, being American is about the ONLY thing they all have in common.
Hurt People Hurt People…
Now it’s people in general, we don’t all think alike, and so we’re never going to agree on “everything”; anything; however, I believe there are some general truths that most rational-minded people have accepted.
For example, when it comes to the subject of people getting hurt in any way by other people, most rational-minded people agree with the adage that hurt people hurt people. Many people have been hurt themselves are the people most likely to hurt others.
People Kill People…
So if we can agree that guns don’t kill people, but people kill people, then we can agree that people who have been hurt are the most likely to hurt others. I think that once we dive deep into “who” these people are (specifically how they came to be and who they are) it will be much easier to see the simple truth that, despite all of the differences, the one thing that these people have in common is that they are people who are hurt.
And I know this from personal experience was being that “boy from the hood” who, looking back, realizes that a lot of my negative actions stemmed from me being hurt and the anger, frustration, and pain that came with that hurt.
Back To The Question…
What was your answer to the question at the beginning of this article A B or C?
I asked because if you love your child enough, to be honest with yourself (except that they do have a problem and that you have to admit their flaws before being able to help them admit and overcome them)… If you understand that, you can understand how important it is to be honest with yourself about your country’s flaws to help “her” overcome them.
Admit It and Be Honest…
Look, we ALL live in this country, and every single one of us (no matter what race, religion, political band, social class, etc.) has people we’ve known our whole lives. People we know, love, and care about; people we’ve laughed with and cried with. All living in this country, so I think it’s pretty fair to say that we ALL love this country and want it to be great.
That being said, if we truly love her, we will have to be honest with ourselves about her flaws – no matter how much it hurts, no matter how embarrassing or uncomfortable it might make us and admit the truth that’s staring us right in the face.
If hurt people hurt people and “these” hurt people’s backgrounds are so diverse that their American upbringing is “literally” the only thing they all have in common, then there is something about “this” country that hurts people.
(Again, not just “some” of us but ALL of us)
“Isms”…
Personally, I think this thing (woven into the very fabric of America and hurting us ALL) is something called “ism.” Ism, like Covid, is a disease, and Covid has many variations.
“Isms” make people feel less or put unnecessary pressure on others to be “more” than…
Isms that create ceilings for some and springboards for others cause resentment for said “others” even though that other person probably had nothing to do with making a ceiling or the springboard. (And if you read this and see “other” people in these “isms” but didn’t see yourself, then, like the rest of us, you too have been affected/infected.)
Though there are variations, the one thing that ALL “isms” have in common is that they keep us from seeing people (because we place them in the box of our ism). When you put people in a box, not only do you not “see” them, but you silence your voice. And when people feel unseen and unheard, you get everything from frustrated youth taking it out on their own communities to frustrated adults taking it out on their own country (January 6).
Whether it’s made us feel less than or better than, entitled or unworthy, mistreated or misunderstood, unseen, unheard, or unloved; “ism” is a problem that we ALL face in this country, and we have ALL been victims of it, …just as we have all been perpetrators of it.
What’s bad for the hive (country) is also bad for the bee (individuals living within it), and we will CONTINUE to hurt (and BE hurt) until we can all look at ourselves and each other and say:
What’s hurting you is “me.”
*Maranz Davis #323434 is an inmate at the Cotton Correctional Facility in Jackson, MI.
