We the people must make a better world

        I usually don’t make political commentary but this morning, I am moved to. 
        Our world has a lot of problems. Gun violence, sexual violence, environmental issues, mental and physical illness, terrorism, gangs, drugs, illiteracy, poverty, and so much more.
        It would be wrong to blame one person or one regime for all of the ills of the world, or even for any one of these ills. I’ll put it bluntly: Columbine happened long before Trump.
        However, as the leader of a global superpower, the leader of “the free world”, it behooves the president to set a model that leads us toward healing these problems, rather than one that makes us more divisive and endangered. Racist, sexist, xenophobic language incites hatred, the same hatred that leaves people dead and wounded in shopping centers, churches, movie theaters and schools.  Likewise, the elected leaders need to make a stand for protecting humanity— all of humanity. Why can my first graders recognize kindness when so many empowered adults are blinded? 
         Yes, there are special interest groups and allegiances and funding that make change slower than I’d like. But it can be done. Look at New Zealand and how quickly they enacted anti-gun legislation. 
           And yes, mental health needs greater support in this country. We are increasingly living a rat race and people are more and more disconnected with their neighbors while staring into their phones. Studies have shown that it has grown harder for us to recognize facial expressions of emotion, the cornerstone of empathy. We have more tools than ever to help combat depression, but there’s a long way yet to go.
             However, mental illness is not more abundant in America than all the rest of the world. Gun violence is. When I travel to international schools, my colleagues in Bahrain and Uruguay ask me how it feels to be in the potential line of fire as a teacher in a country of school shootings. It’s the access to guns that sets us apart. 

           To second amendment advocates, I have another note. These are not the “arms” that were around during the Constitutional Convention. These are more powerful than cannons. These are multiple-killing machines. Imagine, if you will, a dystopian future of bearing arms... dystopian, but not impossible... in which people could carry their own nukes with them. They aren’t the guns of 1789, or if 2019, but they could be future “protection.” Where do you draw the line? I believe we have long since crossed it.
           So, it isn’t just the president. And it isn’t just the elected leaders who need to make a stand. It is also us. We the people. We need to make a better union, a safer and kinder union, by calling out hate speech and living with compassion. We need to let our representatives know that they will not lose their positions by acting in the interest of the health and well-being of the people they represent. We need to urge our neighbors to remember the American Dream that brought so many of us here, to stand for the ideals of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, and to look out for one another. We need to be informed beyond the sound-byte, looking into what is behind the problems facing us and facing those who still believe in the American Dream because situations are even worse where they come from. We need to remember that we all live on one planet, one tender and tired planet, that needs us to think beyond ourselves, beyond today, so that others can have that dream in the great tomorrow.