Location: Deborah’s Place
Date: Thursday, March 14, 2013; 5:45-7:00 pm
Rebecca Johnson Apartments is a
part of Deborah’s Place, Chicago’s largest provider of supportive housing for
women that have experienced chronic homelessness. The program description said that the volunteers would discuss current events topic or article with the
residents. This led to me scouring the
internet the previous day, looking for latest news articles. I arrived at the location and was directed to
the activities room past a very nice courtyard.
I checked in with Christina, our Volunteer leader, who was also new at
this, having been a leader for only two months.
She mentioned that besides this project, Chicago Cares also comes here
for Bingo. Soon we were joined by
another volunteer Mary and Aly, who is a Chicago Cares staff member. It is typical for a staff member to attend
the first few sessions of a project having a new leader.
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| Rated 'I' for Idiot |
Christina mentioned that the
topic for this evening’s debate was going to be ‘Gun Control’, something that is extremely timely in today’s
environment. I had never been a member of
any debate team, but that has never prevented me from expressing my opinion
about something. Christina had provided
us with a one page write-up of discussion points and questions. Depending on the number of participants,
various volunteer led groups would be created and at the end of the
session, the groups would come together to share what they had discussed. The women arrived and we all gathered around
the table. Not surprisingly, I was the
only male in the room. Before we even
began, they first thing they said was that we needed to be done by 7 pm,
because they wanted to go watch ‘American
Idol’ on TV!
For an ice breaker, Christina asked
everyone what was their current favorite song. There was a healthy mix of contemporary music
along with the classics. When my turn
came, I said, “Everything I need to know
in life, I have learned from a song written by Lennon and McCartney. My favorite song has always been and will
always be ‘In My Life’ by The Beatles”. I remember exactly when and where and how I
heard this song for the first time decades ago.
Ever since that day, every time the opening notes of this song play, I
can’t help but smile. One of my great
life experiences has been to watch The Beatles tribute band ‘1964’ perform this live, where they ask
all the audience members to take out their cell phones, dial the number of a
loved one, and share the song with them as the band performs. It truly is a fantastic performance, but I
digress.
Christina split us into two
groups with two volunteers per group. My group, which had 5 women and Aly, went to other side of the room and sat
around a table, which had lot of paint stains, showcasing its use in some art
project. Brilliant! Although
we had the talking points which led us through a structured discussion of
views expressed by gun supporters and opponents, there wasn't much need for
that in this group. One of the first
questions was regarding the gun control measures and if they were enough. Almost everyone was against guns, though one
of the women grew up in the South and always had guns at home for hunting, even
later in life. But even she was of the
opinion that sufficient checks need to be in place for people wishing to buy a
gun and it should be a very difficult process for them. To this point, one of the other women said that
this will only encourage the black market and the ‘crazies’ would always find a
way of getting them.
Since everyone was in agreement,
this could have been a short debate, but there were several other good points
that we had not touched. I asked the
woman who owned guns whether she felt ‘safe’ with a gun at home. When she replied in the affirmative, I said
that I was trained as a scientist, and as such was taught to only trust
data. I said that I would like to see a
study being conducted to check how many domestic break-in crimes or muggings
have been averted due to people carrying legal guns. People claim to be safe, but is there any
data driven evidence? In fact, let’s get
the NRA involved in this study and work with them to understand how guns may or
may not make people feel safer.
Another question asked if
eliminating guns would eliminate violence.
At this, one of the women gave an example which had all of us laughing
hard. She compared the gun owners to cockroaches
that always keep multiplying and no amount of control is going to make any
difference. Almost everyone was taking a
pessimistic view and I said that this is something that is not going to be
addressed overnight. I said that the programs
that we implement now will pay off in 50 years, for that’s how long it will
take for the culture to change. One of
the women counter-argued saying that if guns are eliminated, people will only
shift to some other weapon.. like a baseball bat. Those
inclined to carry out acts of violence will do so. I said let’s examine that in context of the
tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut. The
reason there were so many deaths was because the perpetrator was using a
semi-automatic. High velocity bullets
kill, not the gun itself. If he had a
bat, he would have been unable to do what he did. Furthermore, these people go on a killing
spree before turning the gun on themselves, choosing a quick escape. I said if they have a bat instead of a gun,
how they are going to accomplish that.
The fact that they would be unable to take the cowards way out will make
people think twice before carrying out acts of violence.
Next we discussed how the gun
owners themselves are often not the perpetrators of violence, but someone else is. I said the technology has come a long way in
all walks of life, giving the example of smartphones. Why can we not do the same for guns? Encode each gun with Bio-imprint of the owner’s
hand, so that only the owner can use it, not anyone else. Furthermore, it is the owner’s responsibility
to ensure that the gun is safe in their possession and they do not lend it to
their friends and family. Why not have
stricter penalties for owners of the gun used in a crime, no matter how much
ignorance they claim regarding the situation.
Speaking of technology, we also talked about monitoring the sale of each
bullet, something that the women said would be impossible to enforce, but I
said never say never. My point was that anti-gun
lobbyists were never going to win against NRA by making a direct argument. There had to be a way through which a common
ground is found, with an aim towards elimination over the next several
decades.
We next talked about exposure of
children and teenagers to toy guns and video games. I said that this video games debate is interesting. I was recently at an arcade, where most of
the games were shooting games with fancy guns and other remote equipment for
kids to use. I said while playing violent
video games may lead to violent tendencies, it could also be an outlet for
people to ‘get it out of their system’. It’s
up to the parents to watch the kids and observe how the video games are
dictating their life. Aly gave an
example of a child in her school being suspended for chewing a gun shape in his
Danish pastry. I said while this may
have been extreme, the school should have instead asked the parents if this was
a pattern that they had observed in their child’s behavior. Mental illness just cannot be ignored because
as we have seen, that is one of the root causes of gun violence.
We were all in agreement that
another Newtown cannot happen, no way.
Would placing armed guards or arming teachers be an option? To this, one of the women said that what if a
group of kids jumps this person on campus and takes away the gun. I said that’s a bigger problem with education
because if these kids were going to jump someone for a gun, they can do it
anywhere, inside or outside the school. We
agreed that some creative ideas were required in schools, because as a society we
just cannot bear another tragedy.
Our discussions had been quite
robust and at times the other group from across the room had to ask us to speak
softly since they couldn't hear themselves over our debate. Time was almost up and we joined the other
group for a debrief. One of the points
mentioned was lack of leadership in schools and the reason why kids turn to
gangs, which eventually leads to life of violence. I said mentoring on all social issues should be a mandatory class in school, not just a once in a year guest lecture. But for now, lets go for the ‘low hanging fruit’. Gangs are something which may not disappear
overnight, but mental illness is definitely something we can address right
now.
By this time it was 7 pm and the
ladies rushed out for ‘American Idol’,
not before thanking me and the others for a thoughtful discussion. I joked that next time we should have a
discussion on merits of ‘American Idol’
versus other singing competitions! I took a
train back with Christina and Aly and besides discussing Wilson – well because that’s
always a good filler – we also discussed a sister program to this one called ‘Real Talk’. Aly said that the success of that program
encouraged her to start this one. I had
thoroughly enjoyed this and the first thing that I did upon returning home is
sign up for next month’s edition. While
the discussion could have gone either ways, the women had been prepared to find
solutions, real ones, rather than just complaining. One final note on this topic from my side:
Every life is valuable, especially a child’s, and while as a society we may not be able to eliminate guns in the near future, we need some thinking on how we are going to do this. I have a quote by Margaret Meade on my wall which should be a motivation for all of us, and while it may have been interrupted by ‘American Idol’, this debate is far
from over.
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has" - Margaret Meade
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