Sitting it Out

A year after the Highland Park parade massacre, and amid lame `thoughts and prayers,' I couldn't celebrate this Independence Day.

This year, I sat out Independence Day.

Whereas I usually participate in or attend my community’s parade, yesterday I purposefully slept through it.

It took me most of the day to figure out why: an emotional hangover from the murders of seven people, the wounding of nearly 50 others, and the trauma inflicted on the entire community at the parade last July 4^th in Highland Park, Ill.

First, I should acknowledge that with each mass shooting in this country, I am increasingly concerned about violence breaking out at any large gathering I attend. The math is cruelly simple: any highly attended event makes for a larger mass-shooting target.

But yesterday, what rained on my parade mojo was frustration and anger over the inaction on gun violence. With each mass murder, the best that certain cowardly political leaders can do is offer lame “thoughts and prayers.”

To those who actually practice thoughtfulness and issue authentic prayers — what an insult.

So as the 4^th of July rolled around, and I surveyed the landscape of this Divided States of America, I found myself more mournful than celebratory.¹

Maybe going to the parade yesterday would have lifted my spirits. But for me, it’s all too soon, especially in light of the lack of meaningful progress on limiting access to weapons, such as semi-automatic rifles, that have no place outside of a military battlefield.

I applaud those who could participate, especially the individuals and families so directly scarred by last year’s massacre in Highland Park. There, leaders went to extraordinary lengths to create an event sensitive to community members on the first anniversary of the extraordinary evil that shattered last year’s procession.

In its statement outlining their observance, Highland Park leaders said the walking of their parade route was “a reminder of our beloved community tradition and symbolizes the reclaiming of our town as we build resiliency together.” 

My hat is off to them. Like so many others, my heart goes out to them.

A year ago, in the hours after the Highland Park shootings, I wrote an essay about how I was processing the violence. I likened tougher legislation to making a free throw, and the Daily Herald here in suburban Chicago published it the next day.

An excerpt from the essay:

“Forgive the crude sports analogy, but it’s an apt one: our nation’s repeated failure to address gun violence is akin to missing free throw after free throw after free throw.

If you’ve been doing it a while, making a free throw isn’t hard. Nobody looms over you to block your shot, and you have plenty of time to set up and let the ball fly. The biggest obstacle is your own lack of focus that translates into poor shooting form, which results in a miss.

Another term for `lack of focus’ is distraction.

Too many people in positions of authority are too distracted by other considerations—money and power, mostly—to take meaningful steps to stem the tide of high-powered firearms flowing into the hands of people who have no business wielding them.”

Afterwards, reader reaction included one individual rightly noting that when it comes to violence of this scale, there are other factors in the mix, particularly root causes that can be traced to troubled family units.

Absolutely correct. There is no silver-bullet solution.

But the fact that there are myriad issues at play does not take legislators off the hook. For those who can make compassionate, commonsense improvements to laws, it’s well past time to do their part to reduce the frequency of future tragedies.

In a dozen words, The Onion may well boil it down the best. After every mass shooting, the satirical newspaper strikes the perfect chord on the tragic absurdity of our political leaders’ chronic fecklessness:

In the face of that morally bankrupt inaction, let’s close with a call to action.

If you are equally fed up, then join me in taking action, whether it’s supporting a group like Brady United, Giffords, Sandy Hook Promise, Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America or taking other life-affirming steps.

Skipping a parade is one thing, but we can’t afford to stop showing up when it comes to insisting on the substantive change to our gun laws that are so outrageously overdue and desperately needed.

1. I fit the description of those referenced by the New York Times in a story headlined `A Year After July 4 Parade Shooting, Some Americans Rethink Big Gatherings.’