The title of my essay is, “Think About the Children.” My name is Charles Kareem Diggs, I’m at Graterford Prison in Pennsylvania.
Most human beings adore children. If my premise is true, then why does the efforts to make new laws on gun control almost impossible? There are over 11,000 murders a year. I heard Attorney General speak on C-SPAN today at the House Judiciary Committee. He bragged that this number is the lowest in several years. But on the other side of the debate, parents across America are demanding some form of control on assault weapons. The lobbyists who represent the gun companies and owners do not particularly care about passing more laws that affect their Second Amendment right to bear arms and weapon sales.
The national debate consists of different interests. The lives of the young school children should be our top priority — the right to life. Or is it the right to bear arms more significant? Is the free market under capitalism a more appealing right for the arms dealers? Does the right to life trump all other rights? The questions are important, and in order to reach any compromise, our citizens and lawmakers must evaluate the proposition in a sane way. All those stakeholders in the debate usually believe that children should be our priority, but none of the votes, none of the decisions, ever turn out that way. Mass shootings has been the glue that supposedly bind the communities together for a common cause.
The last mass killing brought wealthy suburban children together, and children from inner city. Both learn from one another, but the senior, elderly lawmakers learn little, if anything. The citizens are far too passive in demanding lawmakers to change the loopholes for the assault weapons. But the problem is not solved with simply passing a law. America has not admitted the national traumatic condition the nation suffers. A diet of war, enemies, violence, [unclear] the national and local disputes pollutes the minds of our children. Their very dreams at bedtime is influenced by violence forced into their daily lives.
Trauma is not owned by battered, abused women only, and rape victims. It is experienced every day by communities and citizens all across America. The numerous traumatic disorders are being played out daily, in the depressed communities. They inherited psychological trauma must be treated if we expect to cure the minds that commit not only school shootings, but the gang and drug killings across America. The educated population in this nation have the obligation to stop digesting a blind diet of denial.
The globalization and the economic boom has caused great wealth to flourish among the upper class, but poverty, extreme poverty, has fallen upon the other part of society, all over the planet, all over the earth. The economic growth does not include growth and happiness for all human beings. As in war, children and women suffer the most and die more. All of these terrible results are part of the trauma of a national and international order. As I wrote before in one of my essays, economic unhappiness causes mental disorders. These disorders result in the violence that we see every day playing across America. As long as man’s essential elements for happiness is absent, we will continue to see violence. Who should have a community of peace and safety and who shouldn’t, shouldn’t be the question. The question should be, all children should have the right to life and to be safe. Thank you.
These commentaries are recorded by Noel Hanrahan of Prison Radio.
