At Long Last, We Must Change

The epidemic of mass shootings and senseless violence will continue until we decide it's time for it to end. We need gun control, but we also need a societal reckoning.

Seven mass shootings in seven days. Arizona. Texas. Mississippi. Puerto Rico. Colorado. And Virginia, twice.

On Tuesday an employee at a Wal-Mart in Chesapeake brandished a pistol in the breakroom, shot six other associates, and then turned the weapon on himself. Just an absolute tragedy and nightmare.

This morning, while watching pre-game coverage for the World Cup - we’ll talk more about that in the next few days - I saw a commercial for Wal-Mart’s Black Friday sale. It’s the same kind of ad we’ve all been watching for decades now. Useless garbage at obscene prices that reveal 1. how much profit is being made every other day on this useless garbage 2. how much workers and peoples are being exploited here and around the world making this useless garbage, and 3. how arbitrary it all is considering the only point of this useless garbage is the continual accrument of it in more and more disturbing amounts.

When I was a teenager I worked at Wal-Mart as a cashier. It was miserable work, but in my small hometown it was just about the only option there was unless you wanted to moonlight in the mines. The people who shopped there were unhappy, impatient, and constantly teetering between either crying or erupting into violent rage. My coworkers were all worn out and chewed up. The managers had hardened out of having to carry out their awful functions on behalf of a historically rich corporation that refused to pay anyone anything approaching a decent wage. Every part of the system was tuned specifically to wring every last cent and second of production out of us while making sure we never received any benefits or decent treatment.

I can’t recognize the Jared Yates Sexton of that period. To even try at this point is almost too sad to attempt. He was well aware that he was mortgaging away his life behind the cash register and when he wasn’t losing himself in hyperfocusing on setting new records scanning and bagging customers - thank god for OCD, hyperfixation, and hand-eye coordination honed by videogames and other OCD activities - he was deeply, deeply depressed and nihilistic. Because his family suffered, because his town suffered, because he suffered, and because there was little hope of anything ever changing, he was cynical and scoffeed at the idea of hope.

One time, sitting in a break room that probably looked identical to the one in Chesapeake, he talked to another employee who felt similarly. Sometimes they talked about wrestling, sometimes music, and sometimes just about nothing but how much they hated the place. It felt decent to find someone else frustrated at the same level, even if it was just wallowing in self-pity and simmering rage.

Those conversations weren’t great. Empathy was completely absent and, as teenagers, you can only imagine how ugly it must have been. My memory is pretty much blacked out in that regard because it’s too painful. But I do remember a certain converation very well. It was in the leadup to Black Friday. And if you have ever worked in the retail industry, you know how bad that is. To ensure that the store is ready to sell all of that useless garbage, that it’s ready for an absolute crush of people to rush in and literally wrestle with one another and commit violence over something as dumb as a waffle maker, everything goes into hyperdrive. You work long hours and your time is literally taken from you. There’s no calling in. There’s no negotiating. You have hard-faced, emotionless managers telling you, not asking, when you’re going to be there, and if you so much as flinch it could mean your job and a descent into even worse circumstances.

The coworker was tired. I was tired. And just casually, discussing a certain manager who was an absolute terror to all of us, he mentioned doing something truly terrible. I remember flinching, but maybe not as bad as I should have. I made some joke trying to ease the tension but also moving the conversation away from it. Another coworker said he really shouldn’t say those things and made it clear it wasn’t okay. He took one last swig of his Sam’s Cola Mountain Lighting (a Mountain Dew ripoff) and agreed. Violence wasn’t needed. Joking about it was a step too far. And then he went back to clock in and continue the drudgery.

I want to say this: we must end the scourge of gun violence. That requires getting rid of semi-automatic weapons, strengthening restrictions and control, holding manufacturers accountable, and limiting supply and demand. This is absolutely a gun problem. But we must also lower the temperature in this country by addressing this system of exploitation that pushes all of us to the brink. It is a combination of the weapon, the individual, and the environment that creates this hell. And it is most definitely in our ability to do something about it.

Similarly, I want to talk about hope because I am feeling hopeful and inspired. I believe a change is coming and is coming fast. We must embrace that change, help that change, shepherd that change, and fight for that change. What we are discussing right now is hopeful. We are talking about very real things with very real solutions.

When America talks about mass shootings, it is very careful to limit the discussion to the subject of Evil. If you read between the lines, in news coverage, in political speeches, in general discourse, what is being said is that there is an Evil that lurks inside of us, a supernatural force that perverts and rots us from the inside out. It is not a step too far to call this Satan, the Devil, or whatever Evil personified you might want to hang the blame on. Even though many of the pundits and anchors and politicians who tell these stories might not consider themselves religious, they are retelling religious stories about supernatural forces.

If it is Evil that causes this, then there isn’t much to do. Supernatural stories require supernatural solutions. It requires faith that invisible figures and invisible entities are doing battle. God vs. Satan. And maybe you will play a role, should you be chosen, but it is ultimately a battle we can only watch or observe or play a minor, subservient role within. It takes the onus from us. There’s no legislation beyond oppressing people into believing the supernatural stories to “lend support” to the invisible war, but you’ll notice that in doing so it helps the rich, strenghtens white supremacy, and protects the patriarchal structures that cause all of this in the first place.

The hope is this: this problem is not beyond our control. Politically, we can make it a priority to strengthen these gun controls and restrictions and make anyone who opposes them (which is only a very, very slim minority) a political pariah. Exploitation-wise, we can rein in corporations like Wal-Mart that hurt us and push us to our limits and often past them. We can level the playing field and turn back this worsening tide of exploitation that ensures our lives are crushed and our spirits destroyed. And maybe, just maybe, we can pull back from the brink. Will it eliminate all violence? Certainly not. But just like watching the climate change figures tick up and up and up every year, we’re now looking at the numbers in terms of tragedies in mass shootings grow to historic levels as exploitation worsens.

But also, there are other ways. I think about that conversation with that coworker. Do I think he would’ve taken out a pistol, killed a half dozen of us, and then himself? I don’t know. I hope not. He seems okay now. He seems better, particularly now that he is beyond that specific grind and abuse. But also I am thankful we could talk and that there was someone else there who made it abundantly clear that was off limits to even joke about. Maybe it made him think about things. I know, in my life, when I lost my way, when I was hopeless and alone, there were always people there to help me. To get me back on the path. And that honestly meant as much to me as any piece of legislation or won election.

It is an easy thing to get discouraged. As easy as looking at the news, checking in on the world. Friday the doors to all the Wal-Marts will open and the masses will pour in to fight one another over useless garbage. There’ll be fights, incidents, and possibly violence. Over nothing. Absolutely nothing. People will be pushed to their limits, in the store, outside of it, everywhere in this nation that has gone so far off its path that sometimes it seems like it’ll never find its way back.

But tomorrow is Thanksgiving. A chance to pause and reflect. Reconfigure and reconsider what matters to us. Every day we make choices. Every day we decide who we are and what we can be. The path, I’m here to tell you, is very, very clear. It begins with us and it extends out to others and to the world.

Let us give thanks.

Let us take inventory.

And let us begin to change.