Not One More

"I believe in the truth.

I believe that every good thought I have,

All men shall have."

– Kenneth Patchen, 'What is the Beautiful?'

I wasn't going to write about the May 23 shooting in Isla Vista. I wrote about Sandy Hook. I wrote about Aurora, Colorado. I didn't think I had any more to say. More words felt pointless, like throwing stones into the ocean. Then I thought about two things: The NRA would love it if I got tired of talking about gun control. They would love nothing more than to wear me down and shut me and every other gun control advocate up. They would be thrilled that I'm starting to feel self-conscious about posting articles about gun control on facebook, worried that my friends are growing weary of these posts. They would be ecstatic that I don't read all the emails I get from various organizations to sign petitions or take this or that action for stricter gun laws. They want me to be desensitized, burned out, too tired to fight.

The other thing that struck me was my own proximity to three mass, public shootings. I was actually in Oakland when the six people were shot and killed in Isla Vista, but Isla Vista is only a couple of miles from my home. In 2006 a woman shot and killed six people at a Goleta postal processing facility about a mile from my house. And I was at work in San Francisco in 1993 when a gunman killed eight people in a law firm across the street from my office. We watched from the 22nd floor as bodies of the dead and injured were carried out on stretchers below.

I was not in any kind of danger during any of these incidents, but I find the fact that three mass shootings occurred within two miles of my home or workplace disturbing. This is not the kind of world I want to live in, definitely not the kind of world I want my children to live in. Shootings in the news are the norm for them. This is not acceptable. There has already been another shooting on a Seattle college campus since the Isla Vista shooting. Seems to me there may have been at least one more shooting since May too. I can't keep track anymore. Gun rights extremists around the country responded to the public grief after Isla Vista by openly carrying semi-automatic weapons in Target Stores. I cannot begin to fathom how anyone can call this kind of action a civil right.

I AM tired of these stories. Some days I am emotionally numb to them. But if the family of Chris Martinez, one of the victims of IV, can rise up and demand action and accountability, if they can respond to the loss of a son with a willingness to fight for solutions and a faith in the basic goodness in humanity, then shouldn't I be willing to do my part to keep the dialogue open? If, in his raw, ragged grief, Chris Martinez's father can spark a "Not One More" movement, and his uncle can begin a piece he wrote for The Guardian with a beautiful quote by Kenneth Patchen, shouldn't I add my voice to the call for civil discourse?

I wasn't going to write about this shooting. But it seems I do have more to say. I think I'm just getting started.