Reflection on NYT article: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/31/us/america-life-uvalde-covid.html
Gun violence is gratuitous. But the rub remains: Has the Rubicon been crossed?
"That which doesn't kill us only makes us stronger" is the only adage we can muster concerning the latest spate of gun violence in America as the land of the free plunges deeper into that vortex of mourning and grief.
As the entire nation struggles to slough torturous feelings of despair and desperation off comes the impetus for amplifying the demands for tighter gun laws: The tragic Texas elementary school shooting that we could have eluded.
When push comes to shove, America, as a united whole, has to face up to the long-drawn-out battle with taming that genie out of the bottle: Gun violence.
"An arrow riving the flesh of America." An apposite depiction of the gun control conundrum.
People of colour are literally falling into the maw of reckless gunmen, or alerted to sage advice and pulling up stakes.
As the writer of this New York Times article emphasised, America remains lax in wrestling with such vexing issues that make for one tough running sore.
The underbelly? No love lost between people of different ethnicities. An issue yet to be rectified given largely half-hearted and tepid efforts.
All this can in part be chalked up to the COVID-19 pandemic as shocking statistics surfaced that there were over 20,700 gun deaths, excluding suicides, in 2021 alone, accelerating by almost twice the number in 2014.
With America confronting the prospect of its unique multicultural society tottering, it increasingly seems to be the case that callow racists and Quislings (currying favour with guns and racism) are starting to play fast and loose with lives. Case in point -- the buffalo supermarket and Texas school shootings, both perpetrated by white 18-year-olds who had their own racist axes to grind.
The crusade against a gun violence epidemic revolves around helping people of different opinions get along, weeding out gun violence and radicalism.
The nettle has to be grasped, sooner or later, however agonising. But take it from me: The earlier America clamber out of this abyss, the better.
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