Bullets violently piercing July 4th celebrations. That symbolism says it all. Indeed, America, as symbolized by the 4th, is under attack. By ourselves. A marred Independence Day celebration, bleeding. America is bleeding. The guns are killing us.
Oslo and Copenhagen just suffered shootings too. The response was calling the shootings by their name.
Here in America, in the immediate aftermath of these tragedies, the discourse seems to be limited to a divisive one, and a political one.
The contrast of responses in this cluster of shootings abroad and at home in the US is striking.
Why assault weapons or large magazines are available to anyone outside the military is beyond me. Why procuring weapons is so easy in this country is beyond me.
The dichotomy that has been generated in gun law discourse — either/or pro Second Amendment or anti Second Amendment — is false. It’s possible both fully to support Second Amendment rights and stricter gun laws in America. These passions are not mutually exclusive.
Yet, here we are again, in the aftermath of tragedy, and the conversation is purely political. The absence of any soul-searching in trying to understand the root cause of this problem is glaringly absent.
By all means, restrict access to guns; transform the industry into a safe and responsible gun culture. But what about the deeper conversation, too? About terrorism, mental health, social isolation, violent video games, et. al. —and the other factors propelling this terrifying, ugly culture that is metastasizing across our nation?
When I had occasion visit a hospital last week, the depth of the necessary security as normative protocol these days was alarming. I was faced with a hallway of locked doors upon locked doors, and could only be admitted to an doctor appointment I was accompanying someone to after special clearance.
On the one hand, thank G-d for the tight security. On the other hand, what have we come to?
Growing up in Jerusalem, I was accustomed to seeing guns. Riding public buses and seeing groups of soldiers in olive drab green uniforms, rifles protruding or slung across their uniforms, was standard.
Not only was this visual not anxiety-provoking to me, a little girl, it somehow felt comforting. I knew with complete clarity that these guns were there for security purposes only.
These lethal weapons were not mere toys or something just anyone could procure on a near whim. They were there as a matter of life and death, that is, to protect Israelis’ right to live. That was these weapons’ sole purpose. This was embedded culturally in our psyche, to the point that as a little girl that was what I absorbed. Only later as an adul, did I learn of the very strict gun-ownership laws in Israel.
Nowadays here in America, we just don’t know when and where the next bloodbath will erupt, annihilating more innocent lives simply out and about living their quotidian American lives.
Moses, who dramatically led the Jewish people in its formation stages, out of Egypt, and then, through thick and thin, for 40 difficult years in the desert, was denied his one dream of entering the land of Israel, of reaching the promised land. To Moses’s profound disappointment, he never did get to cross the river Jordan into Israel.
Why?
In this week’s Torah portion Moses is commanded by G-d to speak to a rock as a way of bringing water forth for his thirsty flock. The tiniest change in direction — Moses hitting the rock with his staff instead speaking to it — changed Moses’ life trajectory, causing him to be punished.
It’s such a subtle change, bringing about the needed and miraculous water via a tapping versus a talking.
And yet. This seemingly tiny change is why Moses never reached the Promised Land. Even if unintentionally on Moses’ part, he seemed to deny the hand of G-d in the miracle of the water-from-the-rock, misleading the people into perceiving Moses as the conduit of the miracle of the flowing water in the parched dessert. It was from Moses, not from G-d.
One may also deduce something else: Our tradition is privileging and elevating the verbal over the violent, where possible. (It’s beyond the scope of this article, but this story is also part of a theme of Moses’ lifelong struggle with speech).
It’s just so scary to think how unsafe America has become of, our own volition. It feels like, G-d forbid, who and where is randomly next?
July 4th, traditionally marked by the pastime of celebration with gorgeous sparkling fireworks honoring the birth of America, has now officially also become a day of tragic commemoration and grieving for the ubiquitous, fatal misuse of firearms in our country. Privileging the violent over the verbal.
Copyright © 2022 by the Intermountain Jewish News
