Mother's Day at the End of the World

[WilliamPitt]

(Image: Auraelius / Flickr)

Mother's Day at the End of the World
By William Rivers Pitt
Truthout | Op-Ed

Friday 09 May 2014

Feed the phrase "toddler shot" into a Google search, and you'll get more than 80 million results. The links on the first page of that search read like a bell tolling at the end of the world:

"Aunt of toddler who shot himself: 'He probably thought (the gun) was a toy.'" The gun was in the glove compartment of the car, loaded. This happened four days ago.

"Wichita toddler accidentally shot, killed by brother identified." The toddler was shot by his four-year-old brother, who found the gun in the bedroom nightstand, loaded. This happened eight days ago.

"Toddler shot by sister dies at hospital." The toddler was shot by his three-year-old sister with a rifle their father had left in the living room, loaded. This happened twenty days ago

To be fair, millions of the pages that come up in that particular Google search pertain to child vaccinations. Feed "toddler shoots toddler" into the search, and the number of results is winnowed down to only two and a half million.

Only two and a half million of these:

"Toddler accidentally shoots, kills 11-year-old sister."

"Toddler shoots fellow three-year-old with rifle in North Carolina."

"Father charged after two-year-old fatally shoots herself."

"Monroe toddler dies from shooting injuries."

Like a bell tolling at the end of the world...which, to no small degree, for the mothers of these dead children, it is.

Everyone has a mother. In the 48 hours between Monday and Tuesday of this week:

A 14-year-old boy was shot and killed in New Orleans on Monday night;

A 24-year-old man was shot and killed in Queens on Monday night over a parking dispute;

A 22-year-old woman was shot and killed in Pennsylvania on Monday afternoon after being "mistaken for a groundhog" by her shooter;

A 48-year-old man was shot and killed by his neighbor in Minnesota on Monday night after a dispute over feeding the neighborhood deer;

Two men were shot and killed in Chicago on Monday night and Tuesday afternoon, ages 20 and 34;

A 25-year-old man was shot and killed in his car in Ohio on Monday night;

A man in his 40's was shot to death in San Jose on Tuesday morning, the result of a road-rage incident;

A 27-year-old man was shot while having a smoke in a Santa Ana parking lot on Tuesday morning;

A 39-year-old man was shot and killed on the sidewalk in Hartford on Monday night;

An 18-year-old man was shot and killed near a scrap yard in Pueblo on Tuesday;

A 30-year-old man was shot and killed in Dothan on Tuesday night.

Eleven dead in 48 hours.

In that same 48-hour period, thirty-eight other people were shot and wounded in gun incidents all over the country, including a New Jersey police chief who shot himself in the leg on Tuesday, and an Indiana police officer who shot himself in the leg on Monday. As of this accounting, 6,212 people have been shot and wounded in America, and 3,665 people have been shot and killed, since the first of January, 2014. Almost ten thousand people shot in 131 days.

Those numbers will rise, sure as eggs is eggs, by the time the sun sets this Sunday. Eleven mothers making funeral plans for their dead child on the eve of Mother's Day, thirty-eight mothers in fear for their injured child, because we are always children to our mothers, no matter how old we grow. The sorrow in this is absolute; it is that bell tolling at the end of the world.

The rest: http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/23589-william-rivers-pitt-mothers-day-at-the-end-of-the-world

[redwitch]

1. Suicide by gun last night in my small town.

High school junior shot himself. Mother's Day just became infinitely sad for his mom. The Junior Prom is next weekend and he was taking his girlfriend. So many lives torn apart, cannot even begin to understand.

[liberal N proud]

2. The gun nuts and their beloved NRA will say its a small price for freedom

[MuseRider]

3. I used to think I was odd

or crazy perhaps and so did a few of the other parents in my kids classes when I would ask them point blank, did they have loaded guns anywhere other than in a locked closet that their child (or mine) had no access to.

This was 25 years ago.

My children were not allowed to play at houses with unlocked guns or parents who would bring my kids home and tell me they were a little tipsy because the kids really had fun but drove them crazy with the noise.

Many parents have never had enough sense to raise their own kids, you must be careful with yours. That was then, 25 years ago.

Mine grew up to be fine, productive, kind young men who still have friends from that youthful time. It never hurt them for me to be that careful.

That was then, 25 years ago.

[WilliamPitt]

4. Up

[WilliamPitt]

5. Up for Mother's Day.

[mmonk]

6. Very good. Recommended.

[mcar]

7. Kick for Mother's Day