At a recent Geneva City Council meeting, Mayor Kevin Burns put out a clarion call for respect, awareness and safety. At first glance, the areas he proposed the community focus on – Pride Month, Gun Violence Awareness and National Safe Boating – may seem like disparate issues. They’re not.
Take military-style assault weapons. Please.
OK, OK, I know it’s not that easy. After all, the Constitution’s Second Amendment allows for our country’s militia to own firearms, right? I wonder if an 18-year-old boy shooting up fourth graders past the point of recognition with an AR-style rapid-fire weapon fits that description and intent. Were Thomas Jefferson and Ben Franklin prescient enough to codify a militia of one to safeguard us against defenseless foreign and domestic enemies not yet out of fourth grade?
In fact, the Founding Fathers (sorry, mothers, your input was missing back in the Enlightenment – so named by men) were so ignorant of racism (believing they were rescuing the land from “savages”), they couldn’t have predicted an adolescent boy would slaughter people in a Buffalo grocery store because they had skin darker than his.
Cory Turner, from National Public Radio, addressed a growing need to interdict such heinous acts. “In recent years, schools have definitely embraced the importance of fostering a positive school climate … focusing on things like conflict resolution, stress management and empathy” (”Morning Edition, 5/26/22).
Last week, I visited two Wisconsin high schools, Crivitz and Wausaukee, where I gave a reading to Advanced Placement English students, as well as writers from all grade levels. Almost from the moment the schools came in view, I saw banners promoting respect, and after the Pledge of Allegiance, the speaker reminded everyone to treat one another courteously.
Because, experts tell us, many school shootings are triggered by boys bullied for being different. Including LGBTQ+ students.
At the same Geneva meeting, resident Martha Paschke emphasized, “The oppressive forces of homophobia, transphobia and sexism often converge to cause fear in our residents.” Gay youth, Paschke said, commit suicide four times more often as their peers and are twice as likely to be bullied, only “second to non-accepting family as the biggest problems they face.”
I began wondering if boating safety somehow tied into the theme of curbing gun violence and respecting an individual’s sexual pronoun. Michael Jandacek, flotilla commander of the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary, told the mayor and aldermen, “Our outreach is boater safety. ... Irresponsibility, alcohol use and not wearing life jackets are the biggest factors in boating deaths.”
When you think about it, those infractions reflect the mayor’s other topics.
It’s irresponsible to allow an 18-year-old to own a weapon used in war, a weapon that outguns local police officers in a firefight.
It’s toxic to overindulge in vitriolic language that puts down, embarrasses, shames or insults minorities who differ in appearance, religion or sexual orientation.
It’s stupid not to strap on a protective device of empathy, understanding, self-knowledge and forgiveness that will help you float above waves of derision, exclusion and lies.
Let’s think of this month the way the indigenous Polynesian people of New Zealand do, as “Pipiri,” the Maori word for June; it means “cling together.”
• Rick Holinger’s writing has appeared in more than one hundred literary journals. He holds a Ph.D. in creative writing from UIC and facilitates the Geneva library’s Night Writers Workshop. His poetry book “North of Crivitz” and essay collection “Kangaroo Rabbits and Galvanized Fences” are available at local bookstores, Amazon or richardholinger.net. Contact him at editorial@kcchronicle.com.