Dear Certain Lawmakers,
How does it feel to be afraid?
Now that one of your own has been in the crosshairs, can we move beyond thoughts and prayers and actually do more to stop gun violence?
We the people are tired of living at a heightened state of alert. We are tired of being afraid for ourselves and our loved ones.
We have wanted stricter gun laws after each and every school, church, restaurant, store, concert, cinema, parade and workplace mass shooting. Yet so many of our leaders have been reluctant — as if things hadn’t gotten quite bad enough — to put a stop to the recurring episodes of mass carnage.
But, they say, nothing gets done until a problem hits home. Maybe now that one of your own has been in the sights of a military-style weapon, this nation can actually take strides to prevent it.
For everyone.
Maybe?
I hate to be a doubter but as we stand on the precipice of another ugly, in-your-face presidential election, I am instead steeling myself for even more fear, more hate, more ugliness, more distraction and more disregard for the national problems. Will we simply move on from the recent assassination attempt on the Republican presidential candidate the way we simply moved on from Sandy Hook, Uvalde and Highland Park?
How tired are we of politicians who spend their time bickering, bullying, grandstanding, stalling, nitpicking and finger-pointing instead of doing their jobs?
Meanwhile, ultra-conservative rich people are making a path to upend life as we know it. Let’s just say COVID had nothing on the pandemic of fear and anxiety that Project 2025 proposes.
Some of us, dare I say many of us, still hold out hope that integrity, equality, responsibility and compassion one day will be synonymous with “lawmaker” but too much dark matter clouds the image.
Meanwhile, gun violence has become so common that there are now multiple people who’ve survived multiple mass shootings and when we talk about “the Aurora shooting,” we have to distinguish between Illinois and Colorado.
Now that a presidential candidate has been injured, can we at least address that? Can we finally stop pretending it isn’t a problem and actually make strides in controlling real weapons of mass destruction instead of, say, controlling how we love, worship or care for our bodies?
I realize I am shouting into an abyss, or perhaps my pillow. Still, politicians, please, for the love of God, represent us, not your greedy lobbyists.
Voters may be just as divided on the issues today as we were four years ago, and yet most of us regular folks still talk to each other, we still get together for parties and holidays, we still get along anyway. We work, eat, live and breathe among people whose politics differ from our own. And, most of us remain civil most of the time.
We understand that humans can disagree on how to problem solve without denigrating each other’s character. We’ve seen the damage lies and misinformation can do. But we also get that we have to work together because we have to live together.
And I don’t know a single person — left- or right-leaning — who thinks it’d be OK to be caught in the crossfire of a mass shooting.
We were caught in a different kind of crossfire in 2020 when rogue political leaders, inflamed by certain media outlets, tried to turn us against each other. But since then, many have found their way to the truth and perhaps a separate peace.
We understand that crime, war, inflation, climate change, immigration, bigotry, corruption and economic unfairness are the enemies — not our neighbors.
And yet so many elected officials continue to work harder at promoting discord than at solving the problems that plague us.
They rely on name-calling, redirecting and self-aggrandizing.
Confronted, they act like a disgruntled middle-schooler who, when asked for his homework, immediately points to someone else’s messy locker.
The stress of the 2020 presidential election was almost unbearable. Jan. 6 was a terrifying day for decent people everywhere, regardless of political party affiliation. People were killed, hurt and jailed because of bad choices.
It’s almost unbelievable that we’re still here, in this hateful spot. Like most of our national problems, our national politics seem to be on a loop.
We are tired. We want civility. We want a government made up of mature adults who can lead in a peaceful manner, who have new ideas, who listen to all of the voters, who can work together, who appreciate the art of compromise and who can attack issues better than they can attack people.
We want leaders we can look up to, be proud of and aspire to be like. We want leaders who understand what it’s like to be us.
Maybe now that you know how it feels to be targeted, to be voiceless, to be a statistic — to, in fact, be one of us — you can do something that would benefit all of us.
Donna Vickroy is an award-winning reporter, editor and columnist who worked for the Daily Southtown for 38 years. She can be reached at donnavickroy4@gmail.com.