In the past two weeks, we have again witnessed the senseless murder of innocent people.
First it was 10 people at a grocery store. This past week it was little kids and teachers at an elementary school.
Almost before the bodies were cold, the tired old rhetoric and debates started up.
As always then these things happen, there are people who demand stricter gun control laws.
“Why do civilians need military-style weapons?”
And of course on the other side we have the folks who shout “you can have my gun when you pull it from my cold dead hand”.
I have no interest in debating which side is correct because I don’t believe either side is 100% correct.
And while both sides are dug in, bound and determined to be 100% correct to the exclusion of all other possibilities, people continue to get shot and die.
Where is the middle? Where is the acknowledgement that an answer may lie somewhere in between each extreme?
How can reasonable, rational people believe the answer to this horror is as simple as taking everyone’s gun’s away, or posting armed guards at the door of every school, or requiring background checks.
Watching stories on the news of innocent people, particularly school children being murdered in cold blood understandably stirs many emotions. Perhaps that emotion clouds our ability to find middle ground.
Have we lost the art of compromise? Have we lost the ability to agree that we all want to see an end to the horror that has become all too common on the nightly news?
It seems we have.
Is there anyone out there who could be a voice for the middle? Someone who could help both sides see the logic in coming together, ending the finger pointing and name calling.
Would it be the end of the world if someone, anyone on either side would just say “I understand where you are coming from, and while I respectfully disagree with your solution, I’d like to try to work together to see if we can come up with something that works while also considering all of our concerns”.
Instead we get angry finger pointing, name calling, opportunists trying to push their own agenda.
And all the while, people keep dying.
With the latest school shooting this week in Texas, it feels like we have learned nothing, and changed nothing since Columbine happened seemingly so long ago.
And worse, I doubt anyone in this country could honestly believe that this isn’t going to keep happening.
Why would it stop?
While we debate, point fingers, and dig in our heals, nothing changes.
Where is the middle?
Like too many things in our culture, it seems there is no middle anymore. We rarely hear about compromise, we rarely see people agree to disagree and still be civil towards each other.
“If you disagree with me, I hate you.”
Obviously that’s not true for everyone, but it seems like that mentality has become the norm.
No middle. No civility. No negotiation. No common ground.
My way or the highway.
Few things in life are black and white and it feels like we will never get anywhere until we rediscover the middle.
