NEWFANE — When a teenager picks up a gun and shoots up his school, he is acting out in his sad way what is the daily foundation of this whole civilization: military massacres, drone strikes, endless wars, police murders of unarmed Black men, Monsanto poisoning us all, the extinction of 200 species a day. And I say “he,” because this phenomenon is very much a part of the male, warrior, angry-god patriarchy.
Violence from the top down of this hierarchical culture is invisible. But our way of life would collapse without the daily violence of the military and police.
This culture sees only violence and is horrified when it flows from the bottom: whether as justified resistance, or as senseless lashing out. When the Black Panthers appeared on the steps of the capital in Sacramento with their guns, that was the beginning of what we know as “gun control.”
Let us notice: those in power rule by force. Liberals of the Democratic Party support “gun control” but also support murderous police forces and military. Conservatives of the Republican Party shed tears over abortion but also support the death penalty and the military.
Hypocrites both! They just want to divide and rule.
Faced with the immediate threat of being gunned down in their schools, young people have started to act; just as my generation, faced with being drafted into an imperial war against Vietnam, had to act.
In both cases, propelled into action, we start to think and connect the dots. Today's youth will surely not accept being chained to the Democratic Party's agenda.