WHY???!!!

Steve Kerr comments on tragic shooting in Uvalde, Texas - March 24, 2022

Why? Enough! When are we going to do something?!

These questions and statements of frustration have been asked over and over again since 1968, when Presidential Candidate Bobby Kennedy called for gun control after Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was shot and killed in Memphis, Tennessee, and just days before he, himself would be gunned down.

Tuesday night, President Biden addressed the nation after receiving the information about the most recent massacre on an elementary school campus. Senator Chris Murphy addressed members of Congress in an impassioned plea to FINALLY do something about the rampant gun violence in this country, and coach of the Golden State Warriors Steve Kerr gave an emotional speech during a press conference asking, “When are we going to do something?!”

My son is getting ready to graduate from UC Santa Cruz in a couple of weeks, and I am bursting with pride for all his accomplishments. Most importantly because he has turned out to be such a kind, compassionate, and lovely young man. The world is a better place because he’s in it. But aside from the tremendous pride I feel right now, I am also unimaginably and selfishly relieved that he will soon no longer be on any school campus. What we are allowing fifty members of the Senate and several members in the House of Representatives to continue doing in order to retain their stranglehold on power is unconscionable!

As I watched and listened to Steve Kerr speak, I thought back to 2020, when several professional athletes joined the Black Lives Matter movement by speaking out, posting on social media, attending protests, and taking a knee before games. I remember turning to my husband and saying, “This is all well and good, but what would really make a difference is if all the professional athletes banded together and flat out refused to play any more games until real change is made.

I am dead serious about this because from what I’ve observed, the one thing Americans seem to luuuuv more than their guns are their sports events. This fact is evident in the exorbitant prices people are willing to pay to attend games, especially play-offs and championships. It is evident how much we value sports whenever school budgets get cut and arts and other enrichment programs are eliminated, but don’t you dare touch the football team! It is evident in the outrageous salaries earned by most professional athletes (unless you’re a woman) versus the pittance we pay teachers for doing one of the most important jobs in our society.

Now, I don’t have anything against sports. I happen to be a big baseball fan and have been since I was a kid. But the blatant discrepancy in our values as Americans is EMBARRASSING. We are the only country in the world where these kinds of mass shootings are commonplace. What. The. Hell. Is. Wrong. With. Us?

It is obvious that the A-holes in Congress are not living up to the oath (empty as it may be) they swore when entering office. Nevertheless, the fact that 53% of Americans favor stricter gun laws and 90% of Americans support background checks for gun purchases, should make it clear that WE THE PEOPLE still have the power.

I understand the sense of helplessness we all sometimes feel in being able to actually make any change. This is where professional athletes come in because I agree with Steve Kerr. Sending our thoughts and prayers and participating in a moment of silence accomplishes NOTHING. People might be able to “tolerate” yet another mass shooting when it happens “over there” or when it happens “to them.” Can you imagine the outrage if people cannot watch their teams play? That might actually be the catalyst for getting people to wake up and make enough noise to get those jerks on Capital Hill, who work for US, to do something! But it is hard to imagine, isn’t it? Because the American people could not, WOULD NOT tolerate such an outrageous thing as not being able to watch their sports.