Howard McBroom
The Danger We Face
A couple of days ago in Miami Beach, a young man, his wife, and their one-year old baby were dining at a restaurant. A short distance away, a man was going crazy, running around in the streets and waving a gun in the air. He shot at someone and missed, then walked up to the family at the restaurant, pointed the gun towards the one-year old child and said, “Time to die.” The father defensively got up and said, “He’s just a baby!” which prompted the gunman to shoot at the man multiple times, ultimately killing him. Afterwards, the guy started dancing around again and kept screaming that he was on mushrooms. The police eventually captured him and took him into custody. The father who died sacrificed his life for his baby.
This is the sort of thing that is tearing America apart morally, psychologically, and spiritually. When something like this happens, it strikes right at the heart. Mass murder is going to destroy American democracy because people aren’t going to tolerate it much longer. Sooner or later, something is going to happen; there’s either going to be an uprising, or the extreme right-wing will take over. If that happens, they will put voter restriction laws into place so that we won’t be able to vote for who we want to. They will make the new government the way they want to and make it impossible for anyone but themselves to vote. Chaos will ensue and we could very well end up like those people at the Kabul airport who tried to get away from the Taliban. That might be us in a few years if this sort of violence continues. This is the danger we face, so we need to take action to counterbalance it. We have to help people who are mentally ill and tell them not to hate. We need to broadcast the message of love and compassion around the clock and get the message out that love is a better alternative than hate. We also need to set up better mental health clinics and equip people with the life skills they need so that they won’t be as angry anymore. Guns are not the only problem we should be focusing on. I’m not saying that gun control is unnecessary, but there’s a lot more to it than that. These people are dangerous because their only options are to live a life full of failure and defeat, commit suicide, or go through with mass murder. If they all resort to mass murder, who knows what this country will become or who might come into power. I never want to be part of a group of people at the Los Angeles airport desperately trying to get out of the country because a right-winged revolution has occurred and the white nationalists are in power. I never want to face a situation like those people did in Kabul; however, we could be next if we don’t immediately take action against hate. If we do nothing about it, violence will ensue and we could be running for our lives, trying to get on any plane we can to take us out of this country.