A "FIELD OF DREAMS" BECOMES A BATTLEFIELD

After reading this editorial, please express your own thoughts.  At the bottom, please click on the word "Comments" below the copyright and type your remarks in the box.  When finished,  please click on the word "Publish."  Please also share a link to this column with others in your e-mail directory and on social media.     

     When will it stop?  When will American moms and dads of the 21st century be able to feel the way parents in the 1960s did when their children went to school in the morning?  When will America's children of today's generation be able to feel the way kids in the 1960s did when their mothers and/or fathers went to work? 

     When my siblings and I walked to our elementary school - let's say in 1963 - the only concern my mother had was making sure I held the hands of my 6-year old sister and 5-year old brother when we crossed the street.  I was 8.  And as long as the 12-year old safety patrol guard watched the three of us - and other youngsters - we were not in any danger.  We got to school safely.

     The scariest thing throughout the day - for anyone my age - was hoping that a fourth grader wouldn't pick on any of us third graders.  No parent, though - not my mom and dad, nor any other child's folks - ever feared a psychopath spraying bullets in a classroom.  Nobody was ever afraid that - before the final school bell rang at the close of the day - we would have dead teachers and dead students because of a madman with a gun.  At the other end of the chronological spectrum, a senior citizen from a half-century ago...could walk around the block in the community of his own home without being scared that a lunatic with a revolver was going to murder him. And Members of the United States Congress - whether they be Republicans or Democrats - would never think that a deranged would-be assassin would storm the practice of a charity baseball game and shoot four people including a leadership Representative from the House.  Yes, we did lose a President to an assassin's bullets...and in that same decade...his brother - who most likely would have been elected President - was shot to death five months before the election.  And yes...we lost a great civil rights leader to yet another assassin pulling the trigger.  But school shootings and gun violence - in nightclubs, movie theaters and other public places nationwide - were nowhere as bad as it is today.

     It was shortly after 7 o'clock in the morning on Wednesday, June 14th, 2017 when, in Alexandria, Virginia - just across the Potomac River from Washington, DC - House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, a 51-year old Republican, was at second base... when a 66-year old gunman from Illinois...with a vicious hatred...decided it was time to "Destroy Donald Trump and company" - as he wrote on Facebook - so he used a baseball diamond that was next to a children's playground...as a battlefield. Before the would-be killer attacked, he reportedly asked if the players were Democrats or Republicans.  Moments later, he opened fire.  Fortunately, the shooter's aim was off and he hit Congressman Scalise's left hip, not his head or heart. However, as this column is published, the Louisiana lawmaker remains in critical condition following surgery for fractured bones, injured internal organs and severe bleeding.  A lobbyist and former Congressional staffer - Matt Mika - is also hospitalized in critical condition after reportedly being shot in the chest...while Congressional staffer Zach Barth was not seriously hurt after he was shot in the leg.  He was treated and released. Scalise - being the third ranking Member of the U.S. House of Representatives - came to the softball practice with a protection detail of two Capitol police officers.  When the would-be killer began firing an assault rifle and a pistol, the "field of dreams" became a combat zone. But the pair of Capitol cops became true heroes as they engaged in a firefight with the gunman...even though they too had been injured.  Officer Crystal Griner is listed in good condition after a bullet wound in the ankle.  Officer David Bailey was treated and released for a minor injury he received during the gunfight, but he was not shot. Thankfully Congressman Scalise was playing because if he wasn't there would not have been any armed guards on the scene and the result could have been a massive disaster with possibly twenty people or more killed. Donald Trump applauded Scalise's security detail.  "Many lives would've been lost if not for the heroic actions of the two Capitol Police officers." Within three minutes of the attack, the Alexandria Police chief says his officers arrived to help take down the shooter...who died later at MedStar Washington Hospital Center in the nation's capital...which is where the victims are recovering.

     As scheduled..."Play Ball" will be heard Thursday evening, June 15th when Congressional Democrats and Republicans will take the field at Nationals Park.  To cancel this traditional baseball game - which not only raises money for various important charities, but builds bi-partisan friendship among the politicians - would mean victory for a dead gunman.  And nobody would want him smiling from his grave.

     You may recall that two months ago on Easter Sunday - April 16th - a kindhearted 74-year old Ohio grandfather was shot to death on a sidewalk in his own neighborhood when a mentally disturbed man randomly stopped him and shot him point blank for no reason whatsoever.  And as you undoubtedly are aware, the killer recorded the tragedy and then posted it on Facebook.  Two days later, the gunman put a bullet in his own head when police caught up to him in Pennsylvania following a tip from a McDonald's employee.

     Six days before an armed maniac stole the life of that loving grandpa from "The Buckeye State"...an estranged husband of a California school teacher entered his wife's classroom and blasted six rounds of ammunition, which fatally wounded the teacher and killed a terrified 8-year old boy who was cowering behind her.  Another male student - age 9 - was injured by bullets just before the gunman committed suicide.  Authorities determined that the kids were not supposed to be victims, but that the youngsters were shot because they were too close to their teacher.

     For many years at my high school in New Jersey, a guard sits at the main entrance.  However, it was not the practice when I was a student.  After all, I grew up in a quiet, upper-middle-class, low-crime community about thirty miles from New York City.  My little town still fits that description.  But now...nobody can enter my school without signing in and being met in the lobby by a teacher or student.  That being said...once inside...what happens if the visitor has a pistol hidden under his or her clothes?  So even with a guard at the door, a killer could make his or her way passed the security personnel.

     There are a multitude of shootings daily in the United States...with 93 Americans killed and hundreds more wounded by gun violence everyday.  No place can ever be considered completely safe.  And we should never take for granted that there is.  We must be totally alert to the people in our surroundings.  But are we at a point in our country where anyone - including a family member - must be stopped at the front door of a school and subjected to a metal detector...and perhaps even patted down by an armed security guard before allowing a person to enter the campus building? Have we come to a time when not only the President, the Vice President and certain other high level federal officials should be guarded by Secret Service agents, but that every Member of the Senate and House should be too?  And are we at a point that each and every one of us need to be fearfully focused - no matter where we go - that a gunman could shoot any one of us at any moment?  Must we have to live this way?  I sure hope not.

     There are innocent men, women and children who are murdered everyday because of evil villains who possess guns.  Tragically, there are other people - many other people - who just don't care enough to do whatever is necessary to prevent the disgruntled...the insane...and the ordinary criminal element...from using deadly weapons.

     How many more Americans have to die before a federal law is passed by Congress and signed by the President of the United States so that universal background checks and extensive waiting periods are mandatory?  I pray that Congressman Scalise - along with the other shooting victims - will fully recover from their wounds.  Hopefully...because of the gunfire on the baseball field...Scalise - along with all the Republicans on his baseball team - will join together with the Democrats on the opposing team...to write a tough, strict and commonsense gun control bill that the entire House and Senate will approve...and that Donald Trump will sign in to law.

     The safety of our country's children...and adults...are at stake.  The loss of a family member...close friend...or anyone you care deeply about...is emotionally painful under any circumstances.  But for your loved one to be shot to death...has to be devastating beyond imagination.  How many more families have to suffer?  How much more blood has to be spilled?  When will the carnage cease?  No mother, no father, no son, no daughter, no husband, no wife...not one single person in the United States should ever have to agonize from their kinfolk being slaughtered by someone with a gun.

     The following was part of the gut-wrenching and heartbreaking sentiments of a grieving father after his son - a 20-year old California college student - was shot and killed in a deli mart in May of 2014.  "You don't think it'll happen to your child...until it does."  Similar words could apply to any one of us.  You don't think it'll happen to someone YOU love...until it does.

     Whether in the backyards of America's heartland or on the concourse of cosmopolitan centers, the senseless slaying of souls must stop.  Guns must be removed from the hands of sick, troubled, mentally ill and criminally degenerate individuals.  It is essential that none of them be allowed to have the opportunity to purchase a firearm.  No monster should be given the chance to blast his or her way in to a school...in to a church...in to a restaurant...on to a baseball field...or in to any other public venue.

     This column is generally motivated by political issues.  And regular readers of The Controversy know quite well of my liberal, progressive views.  I am a staunch Democrat.  But I am a proud and patriotic American.  And I oppose violence of any kind...especially when guns are involved.  Still, many of my readers have - in the past - wrongfully accused of me of being "a hater."  I hate no one.  I don't hate Republicans.  And although I don't agree with most everything that he stands for...or that he says, tweets or does...I don't hate Donald Trump.  I certainly don't wish any harm to him or to anybody else...no matter what their politics are...no matter how much I disagree with them.  We unfortunately live in a world where certain people choose to hurt others rather than discuss a matter calmly and peacefully.  We unfortunately live in a world where certain people choose not to obey the laws of the land...and they don't care if after they take another life...they end their own. Americans are - for the most part - better than that. Sometimes, though, we have to fight for what we believe is right.  With all due respect to English author Edward Bulwer-Lytton, I take the liberty to amend his 1839 adage.  Let us remember that the tongue and the typewriter...(or today's computer)...are truly mightier than the sword...or the gun.  The illegal and criminal use of a firearm for deadly purposes accomplishes nothing, but heartache.  So we - as a country...as a Congress...as a President - must come together and achieve a goal that will protect Americans' rights...and our lives.

     The Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution gives all Americans the right to bear arms.  But it does not give anyone the right to use those weapons to criminally harm others.  Without better gun control laws, more tiny tots will go off to school in the morning...never to return home to their parents in the afternoon.  Must it take another classroom of first graders to be brutally massacred before people wake up to do what is right?  Let's not ever have another Sandy Hook.  Let's not ever have more Congressmen shot.

     And that's The Controversy for today.

     I'm Gary B. Duglin.

     "We'll talk again."

The Controversy is a publication of GBD Productions.  Founder and Editor-In-Chief of The Controversy is Gary B. Duglin.

Now, please express your personal opinions by following the instructions above.  And thank you for reading The Controversy.

Copyright 2017 Gary B. Duglin and TheControversy.net.  All Rights Reserved.