Reagan Was Right

Yes, you heard me – Ronald Reagan was right…

“We must reject the idea that every time a law’s broken, society is guilty rather than the law-breaker. It is time to restore the American precept that each individual is accountable for his actions.”
Ronald Reagan; July 31, 1968
 

At some point we either take actions that make sense and stop this carnage – or our actions are to continue to stick hour heads in the sand and pretend that wholesale and rapidly increasing ownership of handguns and so called “assault style” weapons, instruments with no purpose other than killing other people is OK.  Pretend that there is no connection to the gun violence inflicted in this country at a much higher rate than any other modern industrialized nation.
 
But here’s the thing.  YOU are responsible for your actions – one way or the other, YOU are also accountable.

And so in a week where a young Australian was shot in the back and killed because his murderers were bored, where tragedy was averted by a brave (unarmed) woman talking a heavily armed gunman who invaded an Atlanta school, now there is this.  A toddler was killed by his own grandfather claiming he was acting in self-defense (from the toddlers father, not the toddler – obviously).  Of course I am glossing over the 200 or so (based on average of 10,000 deaths a year) other lives that will be lost this week in this senseless and largely preventable carnage.

Another Needless Tragedy - Toddler killed by grandfather near Lilburn

The caption on this image from the Atlanta shool incident published by CNN read:
A child peers out the window of a school bus as the children are returned to their parents at a nearby shopping center Tuesday afternoon.
 

Thankfully this little girl and all the other teachers and children survived this incident.  But can their lives ever be the same?  Will their families lives ever be the same.  Perhaps for some, some sense of normalcy will return, but for some, perhaps many, I wonder...

Reagan also said:

“There can be no real peace while one American is dying some place in the world for the rest of us.”

So if a child here or there, has to die as collateral damage while the “rest of us” maintain our so called "freedoms" (often also referred to as "rights", and unfathomably to me by some who profess the same faith I hold dear, "God given"), I think it is fair to say, there is no peace.  One thing for sure is that there is no justice.

Epilogue.

I’m sorry if you feel this is a theme that dominates what I've had to say lately.  I really would rather I was finishing up some other things I’ve been writing of late.  Probably half of what I write I never share publicly.  The writing itself is the catharsis I need.  I wrote a lot on this yesterday and that was enough, I was spent.  But these stories sadly  keep coming…

One thought as I sat on my deck last night enjoying the glow of the almost full moon was how lucky I am to live here with my peace and quiet, and then a conversation with someone on the shooting of the young Australian led me to realize I live in a fools paradise.  Columbine High School is less than three miles from my door.  And although in some ways it seems on the other side of the country, the site of the tragedy at the cinema in Aurora last year is just over twenty miles away.

 

Many sides to every story

Vacations are great!  I find time to read, an old familiar pastime too often elusive these recent years.

I just finished a fascinating book providing a history of an Apache massacre.  Before you misread that, this was a massacre of approximately 150 Apache people - many women and children.  The massacre is known as the Camp Grant Massacre (or “affair” depending on who was describing it).  The book was written as a history of 4 different people groups involved so explored the incident from the different perspectives.  It was not an easy read, but it was a different presentation in terms of structure and well written, consequently, it was not hard to read either.

But the actual story I was reading notwithstanding - think about how many conflicts involve a number of points of view.  Especially those that go on for many years, decades, even generations.  And then let this closing paragraph from the book soak in to your consciousness.  Let is wash over your soul.  Think about how this might fit in the conflicts in your life and relationships.

“Given the obstacles to merging these fragile and diverse forms of storytelling into a single tale, it is, paradoxically, by venturing in the opposite direction -- by listening for the silences between accounts; by discovering what each genre of recordkeeping cannot tell us -- that we can capture most fully the human struggle to understand our elusive past. What this past asks of us in return is a willingness to recount all our stories -- our darkest tales as well as our most inspiring ones -- and to ponder those stories that violence has silenced forever. For until we recognize our shared capacity for inhumanity, how can we ever hope to tell stories of our mutual humanity?”

― Karl Jacoby, Shadows at Dawn: A Borderlands Massacre and the Violence of History

 

Interestingly I was in Tucson just over a week ago. I looked at a map to see if I could perhaps find my way over to Aravaipa Canyon (site of the massacre) early in the morning before we had to set off to the meetings of the day. I realized quickly that it was a good hour from where I was staying, and that was not practical.  But I hope one day soon when I am back in Tucson, to be there at dawn and listen for the silence.

 
"To the Lakota, to the Indian,

        when you listen, you're praying.

                That's a form of prayer, when you listen."

- Russell Means

Related theme in a fashion... 

Listening to a Different Voice - Russell Means

Jubilee

Joy and I enjoyed a little road trip this past week.  By little, I’m talking just under 1,800 miles.  We slogged our way through something close to a blizzard the first morning but nothing was going to stop us from making it to Albuquerque to spend some time with our oldest who has almost finished her first year of university studies there (that can’t be right can it???).  We enjoyed a few days with her and her fabulous friends and then on Tuesday headed across to the eastern border of the state to where Joy’s brother John lives in Clovis.  

As fortune would have it, when Joy changed out the CD’s, one that was stuffed in the door of the car was Mary Chapin Carpenter’s “Stones In The Road” album.  I think Chapin Carpenter is a fantastic artist, that rare combination of musician, poet and storyteller that appeals perfectly to me on almost any day.  One of my favorite Chapin Carpenter songs, Jubilee, is on this album.  Halfway into an 1,800 mile drive leaves you a little time to meditate on certain themes.  And so this little post in the nexus of those musings and the celebration today of Easter.  I posted fragments on FaceBook, but perhaps this will be more coherent – perhaps not – and that’s OK too.

The day draws to a close... and soon Easter overwhelms us.  The words of a poem from Mary Chapin Carpenter are ringing Easter in for me this year.

I can tell by the way you're walking

That you don't want company

I'll let you alone and I'll let you walk on

And in your own good time you'll be

Back where the sun can find you

Under the wise wishing tree

And with all of them made we'll lie under the shade

And call it a jubilee

…

The idea of jubilee is to me an important element of the Easter mystery. Something that makes no sense certainly in our culture, and probably made no more sense thousands of years ago... NO ONE should permanently lose their inheritance. 

For those not familiar with the Judeo-Christian notion of jubilee it was originally a year at the end (or beginning perhaps) of a 50 year cycle – the year of jubilee.  In this year of jubilee all Israelites who had sold themselves into slavery were set free, and all land that had been sold reverted to its original owners. In practical terms then, this ensured that no Israelite could ever be in permanent slavery; nor could any Israelite permanently lose his inheritance.   If you’ve never heard of this concept before, it probably seems rather odd, and likely it is.  It may in fact be quite a stretch to refer to it as a Judeo-Christian idea as we see little evidence of it in the modern church or societies that have strong Judeo-Christian roots.  It is certainly fair to say that then as now, this practice was RADICAL!

The poem continues...

And I can tell by the way you're talking

That the past isn't letting you go

But there's only so long you can take it all on

And then the wrong's gotta be on its own

And when you're ready to leave it behind you

You'll look back, and all that you'll see

Is the wreckage and rust that you left in the dust

On your way to the jubilee

...

 

Jubilee to me is more that the big picture. We like the idea that there are big solutions, that government in particular can tackle the big problems, and indeed as we have seen just this week, take on large social issues of our time and provide a sweeping solution – a “New Deal”, a “Grand Bargain”.  And to some extent this may be true, yet I’ve always struggled a little with it.  For redemption is and always has been, personal - something we need to figure out one with another as much as with our creator.  When someone else provides a sweeping one size fits all solution, we lose the intimacy, we lose the personal connection.  

As an example, a few years ago, the government of my homeland Australia issued an apology to the “Stolen Generations” of our Aboriginal people.  I’m not going to go into detail of what all that means - most of you unfamiliar, probably get the gist of it and by all means look it up.  But part of me struggled with this.  And not because I did not think the apology was warranted, for indeed it was, but also for what it was, in reality as little more than words, it was largely symbolic.  It was too little, too late.  My discord was that for too many, this sweeping gesture took care of the issue; put it behind “us”, in an impersonal and distant way.  It conveniently avoids the requirement for personal responsibility.

Each of us needs to be able to come to terms with our own life, its past and our present.  Then and only then can we begin the process of moving forward into something new, something radically different from that past.

And so continuing on the theme with this beautiful poem

And I can tell by the way you're listening

That you're still expecting to hear

Your name being called like a summons to all

Who have failed to account for their doubts and their fears

They can't add up to much without you

And so if it were just up to me

I'd take hold of your hand, saying come hear the band

Play your song at the jubilee

...

But here’s the amazing thing about moving on.  To some degree, we can do it on our own.  But there is almost always a better way.  We are communal in nature – it is part of our DNA.  As afraid as we are that our shortcomings will be apparent to others, we have within us, most of us anyway, an innate compassion that would extend a hand to help someone just like us – if they only were willing to reach out for help in the first place.  Being able to reach out though, to take that first step is hard.  And sometimes, that helping hand can only come from our creator God, whose desire for communion with us was so great it collided with human history culminating with Easter.

Continuing with the poem…

And I can tell by the way you're searching

For something you can't even name

That you haven't been able to come to the table

Simply glad that you came

And when you feel like this try to imagine

That we're all like frail boats on the sea

Just scanning the night for that great guiding light

Announcing the jubilee

...

 

Grace to me is also key to jubilee, and something else we struggle with, that idea that we can receive from someone else something we don't deserve.  To me this builds on the previous verse.  We struggle so much sometimes to see ourselves as worthy.  I think this often begins with ourselves, the messed up idea that we are not worth the effort.  Something has got messed up to where we can’t even value or love ourselves.  This for sure precludes going beyond that, but for sure it just gets harder sometimes even if we feel OK about ourselves, to see ourselves as of value to others, worthy of love from others, and certainly of value or deserving of the love of the God who created us – and yet we are.  So much more than we could ever imagine.

And the poem closes

And I can tell by the way you're standing

With your eyes filling with tears

That it's habit alone keeps you turning for home

Even though your home is right here

Where the people who love you are gathered

Under the wise wishing tree

May we all be considered then straight on delivered

Down to the jubilee

'Cause the people who love you are waiting

And they'll wait just as long as need be

When we look back and say those were halcyon days

We're talking 'bout jubilee

Love always...

And so for some, you will have received this in hard-copy already - well with one minor modification - Joy felt the reference to "annus horribilis" was out of place.  I'm OK with that - it's a part of my colonial heritage I suppose.  But this is my blog so the original version gets a run - for good or ill.  And being a blog, I get to toss in a few extra pictures.

Seems late the day before Christmas Eve to begin writing our family Christmas letter, but our fabulous family photographer and friend will be home from Oman right after Christmas and so we decided to send out New Years greetings.  If you are not used to the Christensen family doing things differently, then why the heck are you receiving this – you obviously are not that familiar with us.

 I’ve been mulling what to say for a few days, and to be honest, it’s been hard.  The many tragic events in the US and wider world this year, especially with one so close to Christmas have torn at me.  I’ve written about them elsewhere so won’t dwell on them or my feelings about them here – a Christmas/New Years epistle seems after all not the place – unless of course you are the Queen.  But that notwithstanding, this year I go a different way…

For this year has not been “annus horribilis”.  From the prologue of Love Actually, one of our favorite Christmas movies:

Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world, I think about the arrivals gate at Heathrow Airport. General opinion's starting to make out that we live in a world of hatred and greed, but I don't see that. It seems to me that love is everywhere. Often, it's not particularly dignified or newsworthy, but it's always there - fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, old friends. When the planes hit the Twin Towers, as far as I know, none of the phone calls from the people on board were messages of hate or revenge - they were all messages of love. If you look for it, I've got a sneaking suspicion... love actually is all around.

In the times we’ve spent with family and friends there has been a lot of love AND a lot to love for us this year.  These things give us hope and joy.  Our girls have had continued to amaze us as they have grown. 

Mallory graduated after an amazing four years of high school and has not missed a beat in the transition to university.  Overnight, a year of lasts turned into a year of firsts.  As always her life is full of great people and so while she is sorely missed around the house she is making her way in the world as we have always wish for and known she would.  Nonetheless, there are days we will always remember; senior prom, graduation ceremony and backyard party, and that sad/happy day she walked off through security on her way to university.

Jillian also continues to grow and find her voice.  She loves life and somehow finds time to balance hanging out with friends, sport and schoolwork.  Being Jillian, she still enjoys a little down time in the quiet coziness of her own room also, although that space has expanded some having commandeered most of Mallory’s room and closet space.  Sport remains one of her passions with the thrill we all got to share in as she and her very young hockey teammates made a statement going undefeated and taking the Colorado high school state 

championship in the fall.         

Joy and I continue to marvel at all the events in our lives and the great friends we get to share them with.  Of course we miss the dear friends we have made in other places we have lived, but are enjoying life and this season here in Colorado.  I think we both can relate to Mary in the Christmas narrative by Luke:

But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.

Our love to you, and lifes blessings also for 2013.

Fireworks on the ground

I believe you see things that no one else has seen.  I  mean that figuratively as no two people looking at the exact same thing see it exactly the same.  But the fireworks on the ground last night I’m pretty sure was a physical show no one else has ever seen, nor will ever see again.

As I sat gazing out the window of my flight out of Dallas-Fort Worth, waiting somewhat impatiently for the announcement we could turn on electronic devices, I became transfixed.  The announcement I had been waiting for came and went eventually, but I could not stop gazing at the most amazing light show.  Sometimes laptops and the work they contain must wait.

We flew to the north from DFW with the almost full moon, the snow moon, high above us to the east, which by good fortune was the side of the plane I was sitting on.  Once clear of the lights of the metro area, I noticed some flashes of light on the ground.  Very quickly I realized it was the reflection of the moon off various bodies of water, chasing me by the beauty of geometry (confessions – I’m a recovering math nerd).  There were electric lights here and there, but they were dull in comparison, which is pretty impressive given the light of the moon itself is a reflection of rays of light that originated some 150 million (give or take) kilometers away.  The electric lights were also very still.

The reflection of the waters though was dazzling, intoxicating even.  I could not tear my eyes away for more than a moment.  I wondered, perhaps feared a little that if I did so, I might not find this fireworks show dancing across the northern Texas ground.  Then I did – to test it – maybe I cheated and didn’t look away long enough, but when I looked back, there it was again.  

Teasing with momentary flickers on either small ponds or through windows in trees, like the fireflies fleeting momentarily here and there on a war Texas evening.  At other times, racing as though quicksilver spilling around the jagged fingers of one of the surprisingly many lakes.  And then the artillery shells, huge explosions of light on large surfaces of water, which faded gradually into darkness but remained etched in my consciousness.

I don’t know how many people have gazed at a show like that; no doubt I’m not the first.  But there has never been and will never be again a show quite the same.  The position of the moon and flight path, the atmospheric conditions, the condition of the surface of the water, all collided to make that unique show.  I’m glad I looked down.

A good day to stay inside

So I just learned that today (Jan 19) is National Gun Appreciation Day here in the USA.  Well that is nice – after all there is a lot to appreciate on that subject here in the US.  Now I know a lot of folk out rallying today for what they believe (I would suggest incorrectly) is an inalienable right are good law abiding people, the simple fact of the matter is, a lot of them will legally have a CCW (that’s Concealed Carry Weapon – I had to look it up to be certain) on their person.  

Now given the arguments by a lot of the extreme and even not so extreme gun lobby that if only someone in the theater here in Colorado had been armed, that tragedy would have been averted, the chances for a good old shoot out at the OK corral are much increased today.  On the theater tragedy I’ve expressed my opinion on how well that might have worked before – but for those who may not have heard my take – imagine now the bad guy and at least one (maybe more) people blazing away at each other in a dark, crowded, panic filled room.  Yes - crossfire – that likely could have been an even bigger tragedy.   Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus, but sadly Dirty Harry and all the other good guys in the movies and on television are not real – chances are high they will NOT hit the bad guy with a single well aimed shot.

Now I have carried such a weapon once outside of a firing range – I was out hunting bear with a friend - using bow and arrow, so yes, there are some non-murder related purposes other than target shooting, but fundamentally, you (as a private citizen) own a CCW, i.e. a handgun for one reason and one reason only, to shoot and most likely kill another person.  Frankly, if you own it for any other reason, you really shouldn’t be carrying it in the first place.  A hand gun is not a threat for self-protection if you are not actually prepared to use it – more than likely, it will end up getting used on you if that is the case.  I will probably get misunderstood for this, and I am NOT suggesting this at all but simply making a point: if everybody who has rushed out to buy a handgun since Newtown was made to shoot a puppy to see what a handgun actually does and is 100% convinced they will do that to another person before completing the purchase, one wonders how many sales would go through…

Now I didn’t set out to write a long piece today so let’s stick with that.  The article I was reading led me to an interesting page which is shown on the image should you want to go there.  I can’t tell you for sure whether the Annenberg Public Policy Center is right or left leaning – or as some rare think tanks are, centrist, but I do like that they actually document the sources for what they claim are the facts so you can drill deeper should you choose.

The point I wanted to make was this:

Many I’ve had reasoned discussions with (and many more who simply spout off things they see other people post and have no idea) believe that the widespread elimination of gun ownership in Australia (and a few other countries) has been an abject failure.

I can’t speak as well to the other countries but I do know a little about Australia.  And I was a gun owner in that country, although not living there at the time the “gun ban” was instituted.  The facts are clear despite NRA and the like memes say that crime in general, crime with guns, murder rates overall and murder with guns involved have decreased steadily since the gun ban became effective in 1998.  If you want to check that out, I refer you to base data at the Australian Bureau of Statistics - I hope we can agree, a non-interested party and probably bout as unbiased as you could hope to get.

http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/Lookup/4510.0Main+Features12004?OpenDocument

(Past and Future Releases tab has all the data you could possibly want if you are so inclined)

A report sponsored by gun rights folk in Australia argues that these trends would have happened anyway.  I have not made a study to determine if that is true or not, but what I did learn is that following the tragedy of Port Arthur (1996) and the gun ban that becoming effective in 1998, there have been almost no mass shootings, whereas they had been quite prevalent in the ten or so years before Port Arthur. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_mass_murders)

So what would suggest we do know from this is that while it is not reasonable to pretend all the guns are gone in Australia, clearly significantly reducing gun ownership and placing very strict requirements on gun ownership (yes you can still own a gun in Australia) has made it a lot safer.  I’ve even had folk sure (because they have been told it is so) that non gun crime has increased in Australia.  In part, I assumed this was possibly correct as you were hearing a lot about the rise in home invasions and such as of course there was no longer any fear of an armed home owner.  Turns out that is not the case either.

In short, not having guns readily available makes it a lot harder to have these tragic mass murders.  It also seems to have a positive impact on crime in general.  But that is not a discussion many in this country are willing to even start having.  The answer according to the extreme gun lobby (and many people who probably are not really that extreme seem to be voting with their feet if gun and ammunition sales which are through the roof are any indicator) is MORE guns. 

What absolute nonsense.  Closing then by going back to the information above, because having reviewed the Aussie data a few weeks ago, these numbers really stood out.  The 2010 US gun murder rate is 3.6 (per 100,000 people).  The comparable figure for Australia in 0.2.  Yes, there probably is something to the lame excuse “why get rid of guns, people will just use something else”, as for sure the total Australian murder rate is 1.0 compared to the US total rate of 4.8 (or 20% of Australian murders involve guns compared to 75% in the US).  But let’s get real – yes you can kill one person with a knife, maybe even 2 or three, but twelve, or worse yet, over twenty at Newtown?

Now I know better than most that you can’t simply translate what was done in Australia or other places to the USA.  But what is so frustrating is the head in the sand attitude that says it won’t change anything, so why bother.  Which is tantamount to saying, we are OK if another shooting in a school or other public place resulted in the deaths of multiple children and teachers.  As an organization that wants my wife, a teacher, to carry a gun proudly says on its web site, NO COMPROMISE.