Death in Vegas
On the night of October 1, 2017, Stephen Paddock, a
64-year-old man from Mesquite, Nevada, opened fire upon the crowd attending the
Route 91 Harvest music festival on the Las Vegas Strip in
Nevada. The incident is the deadliest mass shooting committed by
an individual in the history of the United States. All our
hearts must surely go out to the families and friends killed and injured.
I have
known Americans for and against existing gun laws in the U.S over many years;
the latter, invariably sick of always being shouted down by those for whom any
change in laws enshrined in the Constitution would be tantamount to an
infringement of their human rights. Even some family members and friends of the
many who have been killed or maimed in terrible shooting incidents like that in
Las Vegas recently continue to demand what they seem to see as a natural right
to protection by arming themselves. (How does stricter control of the sale of
guns infringe anyone’s Human Rights?)
Many
argue that existing gun laws in the U.S. should not be seen as having been
inscribed on tablets of stone; not only more appropriate to its pioneer days
than a modern America but also responsible for continuing outbreaks of
violence on its streets, including such carnage as witnessed in Las Vegas.
Relatively rare such shocking events may be, at least on such a scale, but
isn’t it high time for some serious, informed, common sense debate on the
subject without the powerful gun lobby invariably getting the upper hand by
such under hand tactics as accusing the opposition of
disloyalty to - even betrayal of and disrespect for - their country’s finer
democratic principles?
Readers
may think that, as an Englishman, America’s gun laws are none of my business
and they may well be right. Even so, people from all over the world visit the
U.S. for pleasure and business. I enjoyed a 4-week stay there myself some years
ago. Doesn’t everyone deserve to feel less at risk by
antiquated gun laws that simply need tightening?
Should any law
be considered sacrosanct in its original form where a few common sense
amendments might well save even just one human life? I suspect we all know what
the dead would say if they had a voice so maybe it’s time they
were given one…? Don't all those comprising democratic
societies bear some responsibility for that?
'Any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankind...' John Donne
Ah, I can all but hear one American friend say, but Donne was an Englishman and the English have no idea about other cultures. That may well be true, but - not least because I am gay man, I am reminded of the African-American writer Ernest J. Gaines on record for asking, 'Why is it that, as a culture, we are more comfortable seeing two men holding guns than holding hands?'
Food for thought, at least, surely...?
DEATH IN
VEGAS
Country
ways in the city,
music for
building dreams by
for eye
and ear
Grass
growing greener
in a city
pretending not a care
in the
world
Celebration
on location,
sunny
faces wreathed in smiles,
poetry of
joy
Suddenly,
out of nowhere,
all is
chaos, devastation, grudges
out of
the past
Random
shots at the sun
if only
to show Man's darker side
(for
what, sport?)
Ask the
birds and the wildlife
whose
freedom was meant to count
for
something
Ask folks
on Las Vegas Strip
one
October evening about legends
on
tablets of stone...
Copyright
R. N. Taber 2017
London,
UK, October 3rd 2017
Labels: America, carnage, concert, crime, death, Ernest Gaines, festival, gun, history, human, John Donne, Las Vegas, lobby, music, nature, poetry, psychology, USA
posted by R. N. Taber | 07:00
|
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