Revisiting the Past to Build a Peaceful Future

I've been doing a lot of thinking and learning in the last many weeks, still reeling from the Florida school massacre, where 17 people lost their lives far too early. Of course, as it always does, the conversation focused on guns, which led to the second amendment and on to incredibly angry arguments on social media and everywhere else.

I tried to open up a non-political discussion about the issue of so many innocent lives lost to violence but it is impossible, I found, to keep a discussion about guns either a discussion or non-political. A lot of people became rude and defensive. Too many wrote angry and obnoxious comments. Instead of presenting arguments, they were simply calling each other names, and really bad ones at that.

I had to delete my final post on the subject from Facebook because of the unreasonable anger. It was appalling how people talk to each other, just because they have a differing opinion. Respect each other, people! We're all on this planet together.

I decided, since it is truly impossible to be unbiased about guns, to change my perspective a little and approach the issue through the Constitution's second amendment, which is always an intertwined thread running through this discourse. 

What I'm hearing in this "discussion" is that the violence and slaughter taking place in public places has "nothing to do with guns" but instead the bullying in schools, mental illness, and the lack of a good upbringing. "Guns don't kill people. People kill people."

I'm hearing that we should be more worried about things like our kids dying from obesity than from guns. There are a lot of people trying to distract us from guns by pointing at other issues.

I'm also hearing that everyone should know the Constitution and pass a test on it before they can graduate high school. Some say that every college student should have to take a class on it so that future generations understand the need for guns. These are people who hold onto the past and promote the idea that the world is like it was when the Constitution was written.

Funny thing, I agree that we need to know the Constitution but we need to go further than that. While we're at it, why don't we rewrite the whole damn thing! The Constitution was written a long time ago. It was written by political leaders who subscribed to the idea of manifest destiny. It was written by a government that cruelly destroyed indigenous populations and their way of life.It does not in any real way represent most of the people who live our country today. There is no indigenous voice in the Constitution and there should be.
 

This is what I'm thinking. First, we need to revisit U.S. history and learn all sides of the story, including those of indigenous populations who were displaced from their homelands and those of black populations, many of whom had ancestors brought here in slavery.

Then, we would write up a new constitution with input from all those people plus more. The whole nation would be involved in a unifying, healing effort.

The process would address all points of view and the new document would be created by all voices, reflecting a brave new world, hopefully a peaceful one. 

We'd really learn and understand the Constitution -- the old and the new -- wouldn't we?  I say, like so many of our youth, that we can do better than hold onto the past. We can make an amazing future. We can make history!

So, what do you think? Please comment but be respectful!