How Many Must Die for Change - Corrupt Campaign Finance Laws Pave Way for Only ‘Thoughts and Prayers’
(photo: the governor's office)
by JOSEPH SACKMAN
Joe Sackman is an activist, organizer, and currently sits on the Steering Committee of Long Island Activists and the Executive Committee of NYPAN.
Three years ago I wrote an opinion piece about how the corruption of congress prevents the passage of much needed gun safety laws. It was a response to the latest round of mass shootings, one which included young children at a local festival in California. This story keeps repeating itself with more death, horror, and mass shootings in Florida, Texas and New York (two within a month of each other). Nothing has changed.
Even though New York had passed several gun safety laws, a white nationalist still walked into a grocery store in Buffalo and shot 10 Black community members. A month before that we had a shooter in the NYC subway, and from January to April this year at least 40 children have been shot in New York, and I haven’t even brought up all the other shootings. This isn't a call for more police. The police have no obligation to stop crime, they are a reactionary para-military force who deal with crime after the fact, just ask the families of the 19 children and two teachers who were massacred in Ulvade, Texas this week.
Nationally and locally we need comprehensive gun safety policies. Without a doubt if we had laws that protected all of us from the misuse and abuse of firearms we would live in a safer world. Our children would not live in fear of attending schools, our families would not think twice about going out to pick up groceries. We would not be living in fear.
Beyond gun laws we also need to deal with the root causes of gun violence and violence in our society. We can not declare every hate crime as a mental health crisis. Some people truly believe they are a superior race, they believe in the lies of the right wing media and the alt-right fascists online. They believe in it so much they plan out, pick targets, and drive 200 miles to execute Black and Brown members in a community that suffers from white supremacists policies like living in a food desert and poverty.
Where are the solutions? Congress is intentionally ineffective when it comes to the needs of Americans, especially the most vulnerable. Confidence in the federal government is dropping, Congress has an 18% approval rating. Why is that? They continuously choose to serve power and profit over people.
For decades they’ve failed to pass comprehensive gun safety. They couldn’t even codify Roe vs Wade. Yet when the powers that be want to go to war, the Senate easily passes 40 billion for Ukraine. When it’s time to support legislation that will do something about the problems the the people of this nation are facing, leadership sides with the donor class and forgets the needs of the people.
What can we do? Most politicians will ask you to vote and donate to their campaigns to protect your rights and family. Yet they keep failing to do either. Unfortunately the Republican party is the home of fascists and the Centrist Democrats are doing everything they can to stop real solutions from happening. Nancy Pelosi supported a Pro-Gun, anti-abortion Democrat Henry Cueller over the progressive candidate Jessica Cisneros, who would have expanded the progressive caucus and demanded solutions to the problems we are facing
We need to vote, but we don’t need to vote for just anyone. We need allies in every level of government. We need people who represent our values, working class people who understand what is at stake.
We can’t just vote, go home, and hope for the best either. We need to organize. To build power within our communities. Gain support for the issues that will best serve our communities and make sure we elect our allies into office. This comes down to winning hearts and minds right in our neighborhoods. We need to be the force of change that is needed to make sure we have comprehensive gun safety and deal with the growing epidemic of gun violence, racism, and the lack of support for the working and middle class.