The mainstream media are obsessed with the Aurora tragedy, you have to wonder why. Hundreds, if not thousands of lives were changed forever last Friday night. Loved ones of the victims- their friends, neighbors, co-workers, and so many others will never be the same again. They deserve every sympathy and memorial.
But the larger question is, why the feigned shock by our corporate news masters, other than its love of blood, bread, and circuses? With our gun-obsessed culture of violence, the only surprise is that this kind of mass killing doesn’t happen more often. When assault rifles are as easy to obtain as Hershey bars and no one blinks an eye when 20-something’s buy bullets by the barrel-full, why the shock when the guns and bullets meet to fulfill their natural destiny?
The true obscenity is that our elected officials, on both the state and national level, have consistently ignored tragedy after horrible tragedy to kowtow to the Big Gun lobbyists by protecting the “rights” of the homicidal nutcases instead of protecting innocent American citizens.
Congressman Dennis Kucinich wanted to make a difference and save innocent lives. So, naturally, he was forced out of Washington. He sent this email today:
As we share the grief of the family and friends of the victims in Aurora, it is important to be mindful that each year over 30,000 Americans die from gun violence. This is one of those moments in our national experience when it would be important for all of us to slow down and absorb the impact of a small community of people at a theater, anticipating with excitement the premier of a movie before meeting tragedy. The act is horrific.
There is a level of violence in our society which continues to represent a major social, political and public health challenge. The accounts of violence are so ubiquitous and have become so commonplace, that even the most ghastly events recede in our awareness. We are riveted to aftermaths and consequences of violence, but we have yet to, as a nation, fully explore their origins and roots — and how to stop these horrific acts from ever happening.
On July 11th, 2001, exactly two months before 9/11, I brought to Congress a broad plan which called forth a new approach to deal with gun violence, gang violence, racial violence, domestic violence, child abuse, spousal abuse, violence in the schools, and violence against gays. The legislation, embodied in HR 808, would create a coordinated, nationwide, systematic approach to dealing with the presence of violence in American society through non-violent conflict resolution, instilled and acted upon through the aegis of a cabinet-level Department of Peace and Non-Violence.
We cannot continue to grope in the dark, hoping to stem a rising tide of violence within our nation through hope or words of consolation alone. We must be resolute in creating a new America, free of the scourge of violence. We must act.
I ask that you contact your member of Congress and ask them to cosponsor HR 808, legislation to form a cabinet level Department of Peace to address violence in our society and create new structures to deal with it directly.
Let us grieve for those whose lives ended or have been irrevocably changed by the shootings in Aurora, Colorado. Then let us act to change our nation.
Go to Kucinich Action and get your Representative involved on this meaningful issue.
With respect,
Dennis Kucinich
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