Shooting At Shadows That Are Running Away

When I was bored as a child, I would go door-to-door, ringing doorbells at the homes where I knew children lived, asking the adults who answered, "Can Angie play?" "Can Johnny play?" "Can Pheobe play?"

This was the 1960's a time of incredible political turmoil. There were protests, even riots, over the Vietnam War, Civil Rights, women's liberation, and school desegregation. Richard Nixon was running for president. Accusations of "Communist!" and "Fascist!" drove much of the political dialog. The violent crime rate was surging. Drug abuse was rampant.

Of course, as a young child I knew next to nothing about those things. We lived in the protective bubble of suburban Columbia, South Carolina, but more importantly, "the news" came mostly in the form of our daily newspaper and if my parents watched TV news, it was after us kids had gone to bed. When conversations turned to the ills and dangers of our society it sounded to us kids like the old Peanuts cartoons -- Wah-wa-wah-wah -- and we would head outside. There we would get up to classic childhood games like hide-and-seek, ball games, and, if we were feeling cheeky, we would sneak up to our neighbors front doors, ring the bell, then run away.

On Sunday in Louisiana, a girl playing hide-and-seek was shot because she made the mistake of hiding in an armed and frightened man's yard. The man admits that he was shooting at shadows that were running away. Shooting at shadows that are running away is a perfect metaphor for where we are today. 

Of course, we have always lived in a dangerous world. And in the US at least, especially in the south, there have always been too many guns.

One major thing that has changed in the past half century are 24/7 "news" networks that profit from violence, conflict, division, and conspiracy theory. As we all know, "If it bleeds, it leads." Time and again, studies find that the more televised news a person consumes, the more dangerous they think the world is. This is particularly true for elderly people who are more likely to be shut in with only these news channels for company. Even people in suburban bubbles come to fear the boogyman in the shadows, which has at least in part spurred us to own more guns than ever before.

Today, when a kid innocently rings a doorbell, they're liable to be shot by one of these terrified gun owners, as happened recently in Kansas City. Teenager Ralph Yarl made the death-defying mistake of going to the wrong address to pick up his younger brother.

A six-year-old was even more recently shot in North Carolina when she went into a neighbor's yard to fetch an errant basketball.

In upstate New York, a young woman was killed as a homeowner opened fire on the car she was in when it accidentally turned into the wrong driveway. 

In Texas, teenaged girls were shot when they mistakenly got into the wrong car at a school carpool pick up area.

I know nothing about these armed and frightened men other than that they were shooting at shadows, the ghosts of their fevered minds. Fear and firearms have turned them into the very monsters of their imaginations.

Our Constitution's First Amendment gives those network news channels the right to spew pretty much whatever crap they want to spew, even if it is lies, hyperbole, and slander. Our Constitution's Second Amendment has been interpreted to allow virtually unlimited access to firearms to anyone, no matter what their intent or mental state. The result is a world in which hide-and-seek, chasing after escaped basketballs, and even ringing doorbells, the substance of my own childhood, have become death-defying activities.

The girl who was shot in Louisiana while playing hide-and-seek was 14-years-old, a middle-schooler or freshman in high school. We worry that kids these days are growing up too fast, so it warms my heart to know that she was still outside playing with the other neighborhood kids. It crushes me to know that it will likely be the last time.

Perhaps I should be dwelling on the horrific prospect of the next random mass shooting event. Those are the real baddies after all. It could even be argued that these frightened men hiding behind their doors, shooting at shadows, are victims as well; victims of our gun culture and 24/7 news run amok. Psychologists tell us that anger is a "secondary" emotion, one that most often masks sadness and fear. Looked at through this lens, it's hard to not lump all of them into the same bin: sad, frightened, mentally ill, and armed.

I don't think there is any thoughtful person who doesn't recognize that we must get serious about mental health. This isn't controversial. Virtually everyone, no matter how they feel about guns, recognizes this. 

Polls likewise show that some 80 percent of us are in favor of some sort of legislation around keeping guns out of the hands of mentally ill people, and a similar number want to ban the sale of the weapons of war that are almost always involved in mass shootings. We all know it's the guns and the mental illness. This is what's called common ground. There are very few things upon which there is so much unanimity in our divided country. This should be something we can get done tomorrow.

In a functioning democracy, it would be political suicide for any representative to stand against increased funding for mental health and common sense legislation to keep guns out of the hands of those who will turn them on shadows. I know the devil is in the details (which is nearly always a euphemism for "too expensive") but damn it, the cost of inaction is far higher than inaction. I will continue to demand that my representatives, on a local, state, and national level, get serious about those details.

None of this does anything about 24/7 news, but from where I sit, that's on us. We can turn it off. We can stop rewarding them for sensationalizing. I've gone back to getting most of my news from my local news channels. I've found that I don't need 24/7 coverage of every scandal or tragedy, plus I like that much of what my local channel covers as news is actually about my neighbors doing cool stuff, like founding charities, restoring natural habitats, making art, or hosting community events. Every night, I discover interesting new shops, attractions, and exhibits at museums. I learn how the high school sports teams are doing, what their theater departments are producing, and which of my community's teen scientist nerds are moving on to nationals. And then, I turn it off, my faith in humanity more often restored than otherwise.

It's long been my belief that the greatest good we can do for our fellow humans is to place a soothing hand on their shoulder to let them to know they are not alone and to urge them to not be afraid. We all know someone who is alone, keeping themselves company with television. Those are the people who most need our hand on their shoulder. Those are the people who panic when someone rings their doorbell, even if it's a child. Perhaps if we reach out to them, they won't feel they need to shoot at shadows.

Objectively, we live in one of the safest times in the history of the world. This is what the data tells us. Violent crime is down, even with all the gun violence in the news. Life expectancy is up. Childhood morbidity is low. We are less likely to die in natural disasters than ever before. Yet we're afraid and well-armed because we've created a world in which "if it bleeds, it leads." 

I've probably written something here that angers you, or saddens you, or with which you disagree. But please don't hear me as a threat. Please know that I'm just trying to understand why so many of us are shooting at shadows who are running away. I hope you are too. I hope I've inspired you or at least given you something to think about. My hope is that you reach out to your representatives. My hope is that you turn off the 24/7 news and find a shoulder that needs your hand. 

Those shadows that we see outside our windows are our neighbors, our children, and most of them, most of the time, are just out there doing cool stuff. 

******

 

"Teacher Tom, our caped hero of all things righteous in the early childhood world, inspires us to be heroic in our own work with young children, and reminds us that it is the children who are the heroes of the story as they embark on adventures of discovery, wonder, democracy, and play." ~Rusty Keeler

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