Dear Ohio Governor DeWine:
Thank you for sharing your response to the shooting of innocent people in Dayton. Because of your own personal loss years ago, I do not doubt your sincerity when you mentioned that you and your wife were brokenhearted by this senseless act.
But the problem we face has nothing to do with our hearts that can be broken by this hate, by this blasphemy we call white supremacy, this lunacy we call gun ownership. It is the fact that we have lost those values which once made our hearts what they should be. Decency, caring, looking after the vulnerable, offering compassion to those who are broken, listening to those with whom we disagree, seeking to discover what it is that unites us not what divides us, and putting aside our differences for the common good.
No, we have allowed our hearts to become scarred by angry rhetoric and hateful words, rhetoric that demonizes anyone who dares to question, words which tear down the souls of others. We have allowed our hearts to become hardened by viewpoints that cast foreigners as murderers and rapists, not as families seeking a new life. We have allowed bitterness to flow through our veins, bitterness thinly veiled as patriotism and offered as a political philosophy. We have allowed our hearts - hearts which served in war, hearts which sought peace, hearts which build homes and hope, hearts which feed the hungry and shelter the homeless - we have allowed them to become hardened by fear, by doubt in the motives of fellow human beings, by hatred of the other, and by false misrepresentations of what this nation has always stood for since its founding.
Yes, you and your party will continue to offer us your thoughts and prayers every time these acts of domestic terrorism take place. But is it possible for you to have new thoughts, different thoughts. Can you, and the other leaders of our state, dare to think what passing an open carry law would bring to our state? Could you entertain the thought of daring to veto such a bill? I wonder if you could think what a difference it might make for future victims, if you took leadership in banning military style assault weapons once and for all. Every police officer, every military person I know, says such weapons do not belong in the hands of civilians. I hope that you might be willing to provide leadership for your party, in this state as well as nation, to stand up to the obscene power which has been given to the leadership of the NRA, a group that could care less about responsible gun ownership, and more about its ability to buy more and more politicians who will dutifully do whatever they demand.
And yes, let us pray. By all means, let us pray. And when we do, let us keep the photos of those who died in Dayton, in El Paso, in Gilroy, and in places too many to mention. Because if we see those faces - the faces of children, of a mother who shielded her child, of a senior citizen, of young people out on a date, of families who were simply shopping for school supplies - maybe then we will know what to pray for. Maybe we will pray for the courage to denounce those who speak words which are hate speech masked as politics, the wisdom to set aside our demands and listen to the pain-filled cries of survivors, the ability to discover that there is another way to live and to serve, to care and to hope. And maybe, just maybe we can find our way back to being a nation built on justice, grace, kindness, and welcome for all.
Like you, my heart is broken.
But I am determined not to let it be filled with bitterness, hate, division, fear, and anger.
(c) 2019 Thom M. Shuman
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