Would being civil to each other end the need for civil disobedience? And allow us to blossom instead of being lock-stepped into singing that repetitive “it’s not my fault” psalm?
Being influenced by public anger, adultery episodes, mass murders, crummy water, flu, war and opioids is pretty much where we were 100 years ago when we ate as much lard as chicken. We’ve swapped lard for sugar since then, but we still allow others to determine our outlook.
In 1918 there was no Social Security, so those who worked for years and paid taxes got no money back when they grew old and couldn’t work any more. Yet our 2018 Congress is far more likely to take away Social Security than to regulate gun ownership. Poor us. Blame them.
The 1918 flu epidemic killed 675,000 people, primarily between 20 and 40 years old, just in the United States. Medical people had been away at war in Europe getting gassed and shot at, but the virus that killed people all over the world was a fresh one no one saw coming, therefore had no therapy other than “Mrs. Winslow’s Soothing Syrup for fussy children that provides morphine and alcohol for natural, quiet sleep.”
We were just wrapping up the War to End All Wars in 1918, and returning soldiers who didn’t catch the flu were prescribed morphine for mental and physical anguish. No one anticipated the toll addiction would take on our country, but it was easy to blame foreigners for bringing us war and flu.
It seems like life in the United States in 1918 was eerily similar to what it is in 2018. We’re still at war, still dying of an unforeseen flu virus, still addicted to opioids, and still blaming others.
Anger seems to crave something bigger than it is. Anger likes to grow. So we breathe life into it. A targeted shooting in Florida last week has opened that tired gun laws vs. gun rights discussion again, with righteousness spewing out like a double-flamed volcano.
One hundred years ago, in 1918, it was Montana that demanded all pistol, shotgun, revolver and rifle owners make a full, true, complete and verified report of guns they owned or possessed, to the county sheriff. If they sold or gave a gun away, they had to tell the sheriff who bought it and where they lived.
Fully automatic weapons were banned by most states by 2018, but semi-automatics can be bought with ease and there’s no need to inform the sheriff. If you take an AR to a school, mall, concert, church, movie, etc., no one will know until you finish what you started.
Whose fault is it that we don’t take care of each other? Cruz? Trump? The FBI? The other Cruz? The media? There is no shortage of whom to blame, but it’s sure not us, right?
Could we blame gun manufacturers who have made handsome profits 100 years in a row? In 1686, the colony of New Jersey made it illegal to wear a concealable weapon in public because “it induced great Fear and Quarrels.”
Amen.
Do we blame Nikolas Cruz for shooting those he was closest to last week? How about blaming a counselor for not helping him when his mother died of the flu a few of months ago? Or we could blame legislators who smile wide because in addition to salaries and perks and a pretty lame work schedule, they get favors from gun and pharmaceutical manufacturers for either voting their way or looking the other way.
How about the media? Media frequently, predictably, does try to shape or censor facts and opinions rather than just report them. Major outlets report the same stories with near identical timing, narratives, interviews, sources and backdrops. Which puts us all on the same page. That isn’t neutral, isn’t honest and isn’t right. So do we blame TV or do we watch more?
The bigger the media, the more it answers to those who buy what it’s selling so they can pay columnists and commentators who, right or left-leaning, have the same personality types – aggressive. Right and left commentators revel in being denigrating, insulting, sarcastic and shaming of those on the other side. They get big paychecks to do it.
Accepting big paychecks makes them complicit in perpetuating the corporate media credo, “Advertisers rule.” Must be their fault.
I guess it really does come down to allowing history to repeat itself or unleashing the great power of the human mind and heart. And vote.
Mary Pat Boian