Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
The new year has so far demonstrated just how sick our society has become.
In less than a month, we’ve seen seven mass shootings in California alone, leaving 31 dead and 24 injured. We’ve seen video showing Tyre Nichols being beaten so badly by Memphis cops that he died in the hospital. And here in New Mexico, we’re hearing reports about two kids, ages 14 and 15, shot in Albuquerque, leaving one dead and the other critically wounded. The south side of the Duke City is averaging a homicide every three days so far this year.
According to Gun Violence Archive tallies, our nation has experienced 48 mass shootings that killed 83 people as of Jan. 28. We can expect the body count to be higher before we reach February.
The reasons for this continuing surge in violence are complicated. Firearms and the fact there are more guns than people in the U.S. certainly makes mass killings easier to perform, but there are other contributing factors: drugs and alcohol, mental illness and social isolation, acute poverty, domestic abuse, hate-based politics, rogue cops and evil-incarnate all come to mind.
I’ve heard some Christians say it all comes down to a lack of God in our lives, and maybe there’s something to that. But when I also see depictions of an armed-and-ready Jesus Christ being worshipped, I can’t help but wonder who’s who in this battle of good versus evil.
It’s the Second Amendment, people, not the Second Commandment. Jesus believed in love and peace, not guns and ammo.
Nevertheless, I don’t want to blame the proliferation of guns as the only thing wrong in our nation these days, because that’s not the case. For one thing, there are plenty of responsible and level-headed gun owners who are also victims, not the villains, of violence. And for another, there’s something else, besides possession of a firearm, making people pull the trigger in random acts of murder.
Our politics isn’t helping. New Mexico’s recent drive-by shootings at elected officials’ homes stem from a poorly vetted nomination process, the convenience of lying to excuse election losses, and deep-seated tribal resentments.
Political violence is becoming more common not because of defeated candidates and convicted felons like Solomon Pena, but because of never-ending fear-based media campaigns that depict political opponents as evil-doers who must be destroyed rather than people who simply see things differently than you.
It’s overwhelming, really, just how messed up our society has become. Half our nation can’t even talk with the other half without hate and hostility bubbling up.
We’ve become the Disunited States of America, not because we’re all that different but because we can’t see our similarities anymore.
As for law enforcement, the latest Memphis incident shows an ugly side of police culture. Predators are finding a place in police ranks — sociopaths should never be given a badge, and yet they are. They may be outnumbered by the “good cops,” but that’s not enough. Somehow, the culture of policing with an “us against them” attitude must be rooted out, or else those killings will continue as well.
There’s no easy solution to the violence that has besieged our nation, just as there’s no one cause for it all. Maybe we can start with the realization that we all want both freedom and security, and we really can’t have one without the other.
Tom McDonald is editor of the New Mexico Community News Exchange. Contact him at:
