Sunday Night With John: You're Not Wrong Walter

An iconic line from one of my all-time favorite and probably the most quotable movie ever, "The Big Lebowski," has been on repeat in my head this week. It started Monday, minutes after I caught the news of the Las Vegas Terror Attack. Almost instantly after the bullets stopped being fired, this tragic event became a ploy, a political ploy by our country's leaders to move forward an agenda. Either the agenda was, "this is the price of freedom and the second amendment right is carved in granite", or, "this is the reason we need to finally tackle the gun problem of America". This turned social media, regular media and our conversations into dueling ideological lines as we only paid passing attention to the lives we lost, the heroic first responders, and citizens who attempted to save each other. We began to argue before we even began to grieve together. Every American lost on Monday --  Republicans, Democrats, conservatives, liberals, rich, poor. All lost and some lost more than others. The shooter did not take time to decide if the people he was killing voted one way or another. He coldly and unmercifully fired round after round into the crowd.

How quickly our leaders are to divide, even in the event of American lives tragically lost. They are quick to draw conclusions, to search for solutions in events that seem unimaginable. Even if they are occurring more regularly, traumatic events take time to process, reasons for this man’s actions take time to flesh out. But, more importantly, there are lives to save and people to comfort. Is our society so fast paced now that leaders can’t wait till the smoke clears before taking an event and turning it into a referendum on what needs to change in America? To both crowds, on the left and right, media darlings, and political pundits, who are saying we need gun control right now, and this is not the time to discuss gun laws I recite one of my favorite lines from "The Big Lebowski--“You’re not wrong, you're just an asshole.”

I agree with many of the leaders who said that, moments after the event is the wrong time to talk about gun violence and gun laws. But I ask this question of the crowd saying "not now": when is the right time to have tough conversations? It seems to me this crowd never wants to have tough conversations or wants their lives interrupted to discuss cruelty in America, whether that is gun violence, racial violence, socio-economical violence, or any other kind of violence. It seems to me these types of leaders are playing the same card they always do, the "not now" card. But It wasn’t okay in the 60s to talk about civil rights. It wasn’t okay in the 70s to talk about Vietnam. It wasn’t okay in the 80s to talk about homesexuality. It wasn’t okay in the 90s to talk about our massive incarceration problem. It wasn’t okay in the 2000s to talk about equal pay, and it’s certainly not okay to talk about police reform today. I guess these leaders are just never ready to talk about real issues because they would have to confront the fact that they are on the wrong side of history.

I agree with the leaders who said we need to tackle America’s gun problem and that the second amendment should have limits. Taking away guns won’t stop mass shootings from occurring. Nothing's that easy and for the liberal leaders of this country to dive right into that line of thinking is insensitive  to the victims fighting for their lives. Monday and Tuesday were days to talk about the people we lost, tell stories of the brave people who attempted to save lives, to come together and remember we may disagree over a tax plan, health insurance, and gun laws but we never want it to come to violence. The problem with the liberal leaders is that it’s always outrage. It’s always talking down to people. And, it’s always about how everyone is doing it wrong. I guess liberal leaders do not want to take the time to see things from someone else’s point of view, even if that view is wrong.

What happened on Monday is another reminder that we have problems to fix. We have deep divides in this country. Our leadership is under-qualified and short on talent. What’s worse, Monday's tragedy shows people not even pausing in tragedy to remember that we attend the same schools, we share cups of coffee together, we help each other raise our kids, and we all grieve. I was saddened by the events on Monday, but I was appalled and hurt by our country’s reaction which occurred because our leaders have become ineffective.  We no longer have the decency to put aside disagreements in order to care for our injured. "The Big Lebowski" rang true for me all week. Most of our leaders were not wrong, but they were assholes. Maybe we can start by changing them.