With respects to the tragedy of Uvalde which overshadows this year’s normal three-day Memorial Day weekend events.
Obviously, opinions are coming in from the left and the right, from Republican and Democrat, from police and the public. And I’m not immune to the rhetoric and influence of social media.
I am frightened and disillusioned by the early reports of the timeline from the shooter’s first shots to his death. The after-action reports of Columbine were supposed to change this outcome; police responses were supposed to be different; does the distance of time make us forget standing operating procedures, or has time made the S.O.P.s outdated? Certainly, I freely admit I was not on the scene, and yes, I am arm-chair quarterbacking from a safe distance in Colorado (oh, wait a minute, Littleton CO is where this started with Columbine, the Aurora theater shooting is only ten years ago, and the Boulder grocery store massacre is barely a year old).
So, since all of our opinions seem to count in his day and high-tech age, here’s my critique borrowed from specific verses of William Shakespeare’s, Henry V, Act IV, when on the eve of the Battle of Agincourt, Henry urges his men, who were vastly outnumbered by the French, to imagine the glory and immortality that will be theirs if they are victorious. (Wikipedia:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Crispin%27s_Day_Speech).
“If we are mark'd to die, we are enough
To do our country loss; and if to live,
The fewer men, the greater share of honour.
*****
That he which hath no stomach to this fight,
Let him depart; his passport shall be made,
And crowns for convoy put into his purse;
We would not die in that man's company
That fears his fellowship to die with us.
*****
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition;
And gentlemen in England now a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.”
I don’t care to raise the issue of gun control as the only solution to this violence; I do believe if we look at the base issue--safety and protections for children to attend schools, shoppers to buy their groceries, the faithful to attend worship, and people of different races and cultures to walk the streets with no fear of violence or murder—we might find other (maybe even a bit radical) ways of dealing with this dilemma.
We need to buy into the simple thought that innocent life is precious and worth protecting. Members of the military understand this, and many made the ultimate sacrifice to support and obtain this cause.
I don’t have the answers or solutions to this terrible problem of violence, but I do know there are those who will never be members of the Band of Brothers, the few, the happy few who will always take some action to prevent it. As Shakespeare said: “That he which hath no stomach for this fight, let him depart.”
Let’s see how the report on Uvalde compares to Columbine, but I know my own biases well enough to not have much faith in a positive long-term effect of policies focused on hiring and training of the best personnel; we also need policies that help find and drop those that “hath no stomach.”
Sorry I’m feeling so cynical right now. But this violence is way beyond politics.
So, best regards to all, and let’s be safe out there (if we can).
