Citizenship was bestowed upon me without my having to do a single
thing other than to gasp for breathan let out a long, shrill wail.
That was April 13, 1935, and I've tried ever since to be a good and
faithful citizen. I was taught by two of the finest teachers, my
parents, to put People First. People made up my Country. It didn't
take long for me to figure out that many of my fellow citizens put
Profit First. For some years I fell captive to this notion, that I
could serve both People and Profit. Discovering that serving two such
difference Masters could not be done, I was forced to choose. I've
never regretted putting People First.
Carl Jarvis
A surefire plan to address gun violence
/ 10 hours ago
March 2018 Arapahoe H.S.
Students are evacuated from Arapahoe High School in Centennial, Col.,
after a shooting in 2013.
By BRUCE LESNICK
With 346 mass shootings in the U.S. in 2017 and 34 in the first two
months of 2018—including the Parkland, Fla., tragedy that cost the
lives of 17 high
school students and injured 15 others—many are justifiably angry and
frustrated. Mainstream politicians dither, debating how best to treat
the symptoms
of the problem without overly upsetting the arms manufacturers who
fund their campaigns. Increased background checks and bans on certain
types of weapons
are discussed, but little concrete action is taken, and few Americans
believe that the limited palette of solutions considered by Congress
would do much
to staunch the bloodshed.
After all, the manufacture of new assault weapons was temporarily
banned by federal law from 1994 to 2004, but it's not clear that this
had any impact
on reducing gun violence. The National Rifle Association reliably
rails against any gun control legislation, ostensibly out of reverence
for the Second
Amendment, but more likely out of fealty to their corporate funders.
Still, it is not always true that the enemy of my enemy is my
friend—or in this case,
that new laws to restrict access to firearms would effectively address
the symptoms, let alone get to the root of the problem.
And what is the root of the problem? In a word: poverty, alienation,
and a culture of violence—the example for which is set by our
so-called leaders. As
Martin Luther King Jr. explained, poverty is violence; exploitation
and injustice are violence, perpetrated by those at the top against
those at the bottom.
People who are happy, healthy, loved, well-educated, and
constructively employed rarely become mass shooters. Moreover,
individuals tend to be influenced
by the example set by those in positions of power. What happens in the
corporate and government suites sets the tone for what occurs in the
streets. In
our current culture of endless war, imperial aggression, public
officials turning a blind eye to Wall Street and other corporate
crime, rock star status
for the super-rich, and callous disregard for the working poor—the
message filtering down is very different than would be the case if
peace, justice, and
solidarity were the hallmarks of our domestic and foreign policy.
With this in mind, here are six steps we can take right now to make
gun violence a thing of the past.
1. Free, Single-Payer Medicare for All
Improving health care may be one of the best ways to reduce urban
violence, as a community nursing program begun in 1970 demonstrated.
If we're serious
about ending mass shootings, we should expand Medicare to cover
everyone, from cradle to grave, with no premiums, no deductibles and
no copays. Include
complete coverage for preventative care and all necessary medical,
dental and optical care. Treat health care as a right rather than a
privilege. Remove
the for-profit insurance companies completely from the mix. Instead,
let health and wellbeing steer our national health policy.
Populations with single-payer health care systems—like Canada, Japan,
Switzerland, France and Cuba—are healthier than the US.
But far more benefit is derived from a single-payer system than
improved physical health. There is also a huge reduction in personal
anxiety and financial
stress. There would no longer be any need for individuals to worry
about health care costs. And significantly, a comprehensive national
health plan would
completely separate health care eligibility from work. If you couldn't
find a job, or you got laid off, or you had to go on strike, you'd
still fully covered.
What about Obamacare (aka Romneycare, aka the Heritage Foundation
Plan.) Does this move us toward the single-payer ideal? Absolutely
not. Obamacare is
a wolf in sheep's clothing. It was designed to guarantee mega profits
to the insurance industry while it leaves 30 million without access to
health care,
and large premiums, copays, deductibles and out-of-pocket expenses for
the rest. Barak Obama himself, in a speech to the American Medical
Association,
assured all concerned that his health plan was no Trojan horse for single payer.
Right-wing ideologues oppose Obamacare for the wrong reasons—because
they oppose any national policy that offers even a pretense of
benefiting working
people. Moreover, in the current political landscape in which the
Democratic and Republican parties fall over each other in their
obsequiousness to corporate
power and stake their reputations on the perception that they are
ideologically distinct from one another, if the right were to have
embraced Obama's phony
health-care solution it would likely have been the kiss of death for the plan.
Are those on the extreme right wily enough to see that feigning
condemnation of their own Heritage Foundation plan when it was branded
as Obamacare was
the best way to ensure its adoption? Who knows? In any case, we are
again reminded that the enemy of my enemy is not necessarily my
friend.
2. Free Quality Education for All
There is a strong correlation between crime and education. Better
educated youth and adults are less likely to be involved in violent
crime. As a step
toward eliminating gun violence, we should better fund public
elementary and high school education, reduce class sizes, and increase
teacher pay to attract
the best and the brightest.
University education should also be free and available to all. Is this
practical? Absolutely. Note that university education is currently
free in Estonia,
Norway, Finland, Argentina, Cuba, Brazil, and Sri Lanka, among others.
Undergraduate tuition in France is less than 200 euros per year. The
University
of California system was tuition-free up until 1970.
3. Guarantee Jobs for All
A publication of the International Monetary Fund suggests that, "Lack
of employment opportunities may trigger violence and juvenile
delinquency." According
to Daniel Webster, professor and co-director of the Johns Hopkins
Center for Gun Policy and Research, "One of the strongest correlates
for homicide is
'concentrated disadvantage,' where everyone living in an area is poor
and unemployed."
To really address gun violence, we must guarantee everyone the right
to a good job, at union-scale wages. Is this feasible? Absolutely. In
the first place,
there is much work that needs to be done repairing aging
infrastructure; building additional schools and health care
facilities; constructing local, regional,
and national mass transit networks; and retrofitting the economy to
run on sustainable energy. But even if every single useful job were
covered, it would
still be possible to guarantee jobs for all.
American labor productivity has increased tremendously since the
eight-hour day was mandated for the printing trades in 1905 and for
most other workers
by 1937. As the chart below shows, productivity per capita of U.S.
workers has increased over 5000% since 1929 ($45,551 vs. $851.) By
2009, every man,
woman and child was producing 64 times more value per year, on
average, than their counterparts at the time of the New Deal ($45,551
vs. $713.)
Data sources:
www.bea.gov/national/index.htm#gdp,
www.npg.org/facts/us_historical_pops.htm
and
www.multpl.com/united-states-population/table
So the solution to joblessness is simple: reduce the workweek to 30
hours with no reduction in pay. This would spread all of the available
work around,
while allowing working people to share in the monumental productivity
gains that their labor has wrought. Ironically, a change of this type
might create
such a demand for labor that we would have to encourage immigration
from Mexico and elsewhere to fill all of the available jobs.
4. Slash the War Budget
The violence we see at home is a reflection of the violence our
government exports. A government that spends more on killing than the
next ten largest
military budgets in the world combined, that props up murderous
dictators and violently suppresses popular rebellion—all in order to
shore up corporate
profits—has no moral standing to address violence at home.
Bring all the troops home now! Use the trillions spent on the
Pentagon, the CIA and the NSA to fund health care, education and other
needed social programs.
Retool factories and retrain workers involved in war production to
build mass transit and other socially useful things.
What about terrorist threats? Would these changes leave us vulnerable
to foreigners who might want to do us harm? Quite the contrary. So
much of the animus
towards the U.S. is blowback from our government's military and
profit-centric foreign policy. Besides, more Americans die annually
from traffic accidents
or intestinal illnesses than from terrorism.
In his 1967 speech at Riverside Church, MLK cited our own government
as "the greatest purveyor of violence in the world." If we want to be
serious about
addressing gun violence at the grass roots, we can't ignore the policy
and culture of violence that is promoted at the highest levels.
5. Abolish the "War on Drugs"
This one should be obvious. Regardless of anyone's view on the
personal drug use, it's abundantly clear that modern drug prohibition
has been no more effective
than was alcohol prohibition in the 1920s. And just as earlier
prohibition spawned the likes of Al Capone, the modern "war on drugs"
has contributed significantly
to urban violence, with the FBI reporting an average of 490
drug-related murders per year between 2007 and 2011. Add to this a
pattern of discriminatory
enforcement and the unequal impact the "war on drugs" has had on the
poor and people of color and it's abundantly clear that, to really
address urban violence,
the phony war on drugs has got to go.
Treat drug addiction as an illness, not a crime. And, with guaranteed
jobs, educational opportunities and health care for all, no one would
be compelled
by economic necessity to enter the drug trade.
Now consider this: Drugs that have long been illegal are still widely
available on the street. Shouldn't this give us pause when considering
whether legal
prohibition of firearms would actually make them unavailable?
6. Address the Root Causes of Depression, Anxiety and Alienation
What makes an individual become a mass shooter? Jack Levin, professor
of sociology and criminology at Northeastern University offers, "You
know, most mass
killers have suffered some kind of chronic depression and
frustration." This is troubling since depression is on the rise in the
US, according to Columbia
University's Mailman School of Public Health.
So to really address gun violence, we have to address widespread
depression and alienation. But what causes these? In his book, Lost
Connections, Johann
Hari attempts to answer this key question. Based on meetings and
interviews with distinguished research scientists, Hari identifies
nine causes of depression
and anxiety, challenging accepted wisdom that these are caused
primarily by an unlucky brain or chemical imbalance. The first seven
causes involve disconnection
from:
•Meaningful work.
•Other people.
•Meaningful values.
•Childhood trauma.
•Status and respect.
•The natural world.
•A hopeful or secure future.
The final two he describes as the "Real [limited] Role of Genes and
Brain Changes."
So job insecurity, or having a stressful job over which you have no
control; a breakdown of solidarity and a lack of nurturing connections
with people
and the community; being subjected to a culture that values shopping
for things over genuine human wellbeing; racial, sexual or other abuse
suffered as
a child, and this within a culture that puts complete responsibility
for raising children on individual families and then fails to provide
the needed resources;
a tenuous hold on status or respect, possibly due to a job loss or
other economic factors; an urbanized lifestyle, disconnected from
nature; diminished
hope for the future—these are all key factors that breed depression,
anxiety, and alienation. But for a great many, this is nothing more
than a routine
description of life in capitalist America today!
With the decline of unions, all workers are under more pressure. Rates
of suicide and opioid abuse have increased alarmingly.
Our culture is optimized for reproducing depression, alienation, and
hopelessness, which are key ingredients in mass shootings. So it makes
perfect sense
that the United States—the undisputed world leader in war and
international violence, exploitation and oppression at home and
abroad, environmental degradation,
and a soul-crushing focus on boosting corporate profits before all
else—should also be the global champ of domestic gun violence.
Points 1 through 5 above would begin to confront some of the societal
factors that increase depression and alienation. But to really get to
the root of
this problem, we need a complete reboot that would allow us to rebuild
society in a way that puts human needs before profits.
So there you have it: a plan which, if implemented, would drastically
reduce gun violence while improving everyone's quality of life in
countless other
ways. There is nothing rhetorical or tongue-in-cheek about this
solution. Some will argue that this plan is not practical, but this
confuses what is practical
with what is easy. Sure, there's bound to be resistance to this
solution by those who have a vested interest in the status quo.
By comparison, passing additional laws to regulate the personal use of
firearms might seem easier to accomplish. Trouble is, the passage of
such laws would
be unlikely to lead to an enduring solution. In the end, a solution
that really works is infinitely more practical than any quick fix that
does not truly
address the underlying problem. A difficult reality is far more
practical than the most appealing illusion.
***
reprinted from:
https://socialistaction.org/2018/02/23/a-surefire-plan-to-address-gun-violence/
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