First, as is my wont when writing about current events rather than baseball, I am sorry that despite the beginnings of spring games, the events in Parkland this past week make it so that my virtual pen must speak.
Let me set things straight to start.
I am, as advertised, a Berkeley hippie of long-standing. I am sensitive to the immigrant experience, as my parents did indeed flee the Nazis and holocaust, and my father became an American citizen after being drafted into World War II. Rudy stayed in the active reserves after the war, becoming an expert target shot, participating in a number of annual Army shooting contests.
Of course, as a pre-teenage kid in the late 50’s and early 60’s, I thought guns were cool and went with my dad, first spotting him, then slowly learning to shoot, break down a gun and put one back together, along with the normal shooting processes like setting the safety, setting at the firing line and so on.
In fact, at the age of 12, while spotting Rudy during a practice with his Army reserve mates, I put a .38 wad cutter 
I have no fear of the power of guns, though I do have an appreciation as well as a healthy respect for them. I also have a realistic notion of just how “valuable” said weapons might be in a crisis.
I also went to high school and college during the heyday of the Vietnam war, and I was certainly a marcher and protestor and advocate of some paths to harmony other than simply conquering and vanquishing a prospective enemy.
My generation, despite its socially aware roots, has become sadly dormant in middle and old age. We largely earned wealth with education and the dot-com boom, as — to use Yippie cum Yuppie leader Jerry Rubin as an example — the fruits and safety of capitalism outweighed the importance of working for a better world at a higher level.
Not that I have lost my sensibilities over the years, despite the fact that I did go to grad school and I did work in the mainstream corporate world, retiring from ATT three years ago. And, I am happy to say I had a successful run with my last employer, making them (and me) money working for a corporation that was great as I dealt with a dying wife and then child.
But right is still right, and wrong is still wrong, and since my youth I have had no interactions with guns (well, one brief one at Six Flags) and have shuddered at every public shooting starting with the real origins of school holocausts with the student attack at the Cleveland Elementary School in 1979 — 20 years prior to Columbine — an incident that prompted the Boomtown Rats song “I Don’t Like Mondays.” (See this chart of shootings and it will take your breath away, and not in a good way.)
We are, ostensibly, a democracy, and per Wiki, the Greek root of the word means “rule of the people,” so let’s consider this in contrast to the stranglehold the NRA has over our politicians (stats source).
- 66% of Americans believe there should be tougher gun control laws, up from 47% in 2015.
- 97% of Americans support universal background checks.
- 69% of Americans support a nationwide ban on assault weapons (something Ronald Reagan supported when signed into law in 1994, but which dormantly expired in 2004).
- 67% of Americans simply say it is too easy to buy a gun.
Well, the last time I checked, “rule of the people” likely meant more than 50% of the population, so why we have been so stuck in this cycle of shooting, remorse, and nothing being done is really as specious as it gets.
In the wake of the Parkland shooting, I am heartened by the students and administrators who have been “activated” to actually do something. It seems that finally a new generation of protests represent not just our democracy and the voice of the people, but also are working to push America back onto the path of hope and justice and liberty for all of us (remember, the civil rights of all those shot over the years have been violated in every instance).
Even the late — and extremely conservative — Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia did not feel the Second Amendment covered the AR-15, so what is taking us so long? Why are our politicians cow-towing to an organization whose primary interest is to sell weapons when the vast majority of our population wants to adjust access to specific types of guns?
What is it about our “wild west” history that perpetuates silly myths that a handgun in the night stand drawer will deter home invasions just like teachers with .357’s will scare away the school shooters? For, just as under the stress of an attack, most of us would be paralyzed, let alone remember to load our weapon and turn off the safety, much less hit any kind of potential target?
For, if we simply reduced access to at least assault weapons, the overt problem would lessen, again, statistically (if you believe in wOBP and WAR, then you should believe in these stats as well).
Fortunately, there is a new generation of articulate and focused kids and teachers coming forth, sticking it in the face of both the NRA and its cartel of purchased politicians.
All I can say is:
- I am with you.
- I will protest with you.
- I want a safe and strong country where ALL our rights are protected, starting with the most vulnerable.
I need to also echo President Obama, with some relief. “We have been waiting for you!” he said the other day, and he is right. So was Victor Laszlo, as he spoke to Rick Blaine at the end of “Cassablanca.” Let’s just leave it with those words, better than anything I could say.
