My dear friend, the late Reverend William Sloane Coffin, Jr., spent his last years in Strafford, VT, near my former home. He was a lifelong, passionate voice for peace and justice, notably as a civil rights pioneer and a leader of anti-nuclear efforts.
"Everyone who produces and sells weapons is complicit."
Does that include Raytheon, Northrop-Grummond, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, etc.? Does it matter that those weapons only get sold to other countries where other people's children get slaughtered? Is it surprising that a country whose biggest exports include death and destruction has that death and destruction coming home to roost with increasing frequency and violence? Is there a connection between the fact that we just sent $40 billion in weapons to nazis in Ukraine while our own parents here at home are struggling to find baby formula?
Sure, ban "assault weapons" (however that term is defined), but we need to take a much larger and deeper look at our country as a whole - the same country that was founded on the genocide of the native peoples and the enslavement of peoples forced here from Africa and which now tops $800 billion a year in "defense" (sic) spending. If we don't cure those ills, we can ban everything down to water pistols and nothing will fundamentally change.
"Everyone who produces and sells weapons is complicit."
Does that include Raytheon, Northrop-Grummond, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, etc.? Does it matter that those weapons only get sold to other countries where other people's children get slaughtered? Is it surprising that a country whose biggest exports include death and destruction has that death and destruction coming home to roost with increasing frequency and violence? Is there a connection between the fact that we just sent $40 billion in weapons to nazis in Ukraine while our own parents here at home are struggling to find baby formula?
Sure, ban "assault weapons" (however that term is defined), but we need to take a much larger and deeper look at our country as a whole - the same country that was founded on the genocide of the native peoples and the enslavement of peoples forced here from Africa and which now tops $800 billion a year in "defense" (sic) spending. If we don't cure those ills, we can ban everything down to water pistols and nothing will fundamentally change.