Nine Days Since

   When this article gets posted it will have been nine days since yet another deranged man has decided to shoot into a group of innocent people – both those he targeted and random people that just happened to be in the area.  Since then there have been so many revelations about the incident it’s hard to keep track.

   The gunman was troubled and had become transfixed with a philosophy espousing that there are codes to be discovered within words by scrutinizing specific letters, and that people are blanketly being repressed by the government by being forced to pay taxes. (http://gawker.com/5729241/why-was-jared-loughner-obsessed-with-grammar)  He had descended so far into a world of abstract philosophies and disjointed thinking that he had ceased to see the world passing in front of his eyes for what it was.  Even the normally thorough and clear 60 Minutes seemed to have difficulty piecing it together. (http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/01/14/60minutes/main7246233.shtml?ta...)

      Sure he felt intruded upon, controlled and oppressed by the government, but so does a large number of Americans come tax season every year.  That doesn’t drive folks to go out, pick up guns and shoot innocent elected officials and others.  I’m no psychiatrist or medical expert, but from the information available, from interviews I’ve seen of his friends and his own writings and videos he was clearly not grounded in reality.  Somehow he had lost the thread binding the often bizarre philosophies he believed in, small pieces of truth and the ability to comprehend the world in front of his face.  It’s almost as though he created a living lie for himself wherein he walked about day after day believing in things which just weren’t a part of the fabric of this existence.

       His desire to fully succumb to this fictionalized world existing mostly in his own mind, coupled with an increasing unwillingness to accept the world in front of him for what it was, seemed to be his undoing- at least from what we know thus far.  Whatever the case, in the end, he became unhinged in a way which, unlike the majority of those that become unhinged from the world we live in, led him to decide to pick up a firearm and shoot innocent people. His sickness consumed him which was unfortunate for all involved.

      Senator Giffords is recovering apparently and making steady progress.  She was a victim of the shooter’s break with reality; she and eighteen others.  She will hopefully continue to recover and gain her full strength so she can live her life, survive and move on.  For six of the other victims it’s too late for any recovery.  Though there are many differing views on why he did it exactly, there can be no doubt it was an attempted assassination of an elected official.

       Today is the day our nation observes doctor Martin Luther King Jr’s birthday a time when we take stock of what the sacrifices made by so many before us mean in the world we live in today.  His vision for change through reasoned resistance and non-violent political action propelled our nation forward in a great leap transcending boundaries, traditions, repressive legacies and the evils that men can sometimes wreak upon one another.  It was a time most of us can only read about and think about as we give thanks to his spirit for his work to make us a freer and better society.

      Yet in an act of violence he was taken from us by the hand of an assassin.  Nine days from the event in Tucson we arrive at a day marking exactly how far a society can evolve as a result of peaceful action.  Nine days later we arrive at a reminder of the power of change through non-violent means.  Nine days later we arrive at a day of remembrance for a man and an era in our history when the true power of the mind and intellect was on display for those paying attention.

      For those awake enough during the time Dr King marched it was an opportunity to take advantage of the chance for change.  And they took it.  We were made aware of the opportunity they chose to seize through him and his contemporaries who irreversibly changed America.  To bring about meaningful results through non-violent means in any society must take a considerable amount of intelligence.

      May we use this opportunity to reflect upon how far a nation can come without having to resort to violence.  May we use this chance through the work of Dr King to think about what is possible using the power of the mind and the application of abstract ideas and philosophies to what is occurring all around us everyday in constructive and positive ways.  The fruits of what he and his contemporaries planted are around us everyday and the soil is still fertile.  Dr King passed that to us as though he were whispering a message of hope into the ears of an entire nation for years to come.  What he accomplished through non-violence will last longer and be more meaningful than that which the Arizona shooter and all like him could ever through their actions.

      To read about my inspiration for this article go to www.lawsuitagainstuconn.com.