What Needs To Be Done

We are in danger of losing our democracy. People don’t want to continue living in fear every time they walk out their door, wondering if they might get shot in a mass murder spree. People are going to accept anything that might be better than that, anything that might put an end to this sort of violence. We all know the world is round instead of flat, but would it really matter if the world were flat instead of round? Most people would live just as happily on a flat world as they do on a round world. If the Flat Earth Society came to power and started teaching everybody that the world was flat, but also did a good job at governing and stopping mass murders, most people would accept that. People wouldn’t care about the shape of the earth as long as they could live their lives peacefully and freely without having to live in fear. The same thing is true for the age of the earth. Young Earth Creationists believe the world is only 10,000 years old but scientific evidence tells us the world is 4.5 billion years old. In the end, it doesn’t matter whether the world is flat or round or whether the world is old or young; what matters is being able to live a good, long life.

Moral courage is not commonplace. We’d like to think that people would stand up against something that’s morally wrong, but the truth is, moral courage is very rare. Most people aren’t like Gandhi or Martin Luther King. Jr. Instead, people just sit back and go along with anything that makes their life better, even if they don’t agree with it. If Extremists came to power and society were to become a right-wing racist government, people would accept it if it made their lives better. Democracy is an excellent system of government as long as it works well, but an incompetent democracy is a danger both to itself and to others. It’s a danger to itself because it’s not likely to survive and it’s a danger to others because it’s incapable of defending itself. A system that fails cannot defend itself and sooner or later, somebody else is going to set up their own government the way they like it. Unfortunately, there are a lot of bad people out there who would take advantage of that power and use it to promote hate. So we need to stop mass shootings not only to saves lives, but to also save democracy. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are advocating for stricter gun laws, but that doesn’t get at the root of the problem. The root is that hate has been legitimatized and people feel that guns mean power. If we don’t do something about this, I truly fear for what might happen. We need a nationwide educational campaign to teach people that hate leads to darkness. You can’t build a great nation on hate, contempt, and destroying the lives of others. We need to spread this message and then help angry people by offering them better alternatives. We have to teach them the skills they need in order to function in society. We need to teach them about inclusion, diversity, tolerance, and respect for others. I would like to think that a majority of people would resent a world based on hatred and violence, but history teaches us otherwise. People go towards what works for them and makes their lives better, even if it’s harmful for everyone else. We have to teach people that an inclusive society can bring them what they want and that it can do so without them living in fear of getting shot. We need to convey the message that love is the answer, teach people how to be emotionally intelligent and socially competent, and spread kindness to these individuals and show them that there are better ways of living. If we don’t, who knows what they’ll be capable of doing.