“How long? How long must we sing this song? How long?Because tonight, we can be as one. Tonight.” U2
This is what we should be asking. This is what we should be
joining hands and singing. Watch the
video (here) of the U2 performance from the Rattle and Hum tour film. In my
opinion, it is the single most powerful Rock and Roll performance crying out
for an end to people killing people. The emotion expressed by Bono is palpable. As an Irishman, eleven of his fellow countrymen had been killed just that day.
Now, in America, we have weekly mass killings. Some in the
name of revolution. Some in the name of Jihad. Some in the name of God. Some in
the name of hate. The wide proliferation of guns makes this type of killing
easy and more likely. The fear on every side is amped up by the knowledge that
every encounter between a police officer and a civilian may end in bloodshed,
because there is a good chance that the civilian is armed. The fear is with all
of us because entering a movie theatre could be a deadly activity. Or going to
a nightclub to dance may end in mass carnage. An unhappy motorist may randomly
decide to shoot you right through your car window.
How long will it take for white people to utter the phrase
“Black Lives Matter?” To just acknowledge that we have not ever equally valued
the lives of People of Color? How long will it take for us to show respect to a
black President? How long will it take for us to admit our complicity in
oppression whether it’s through silence, or denigrating People of Color, or
just feeling that we are superior because we are white? How long before we stop
fearing every black man we encounter?
This has been true since the beginning of time. We can be as
one. It’s madness that only the prophets, the artists, and the poets seem to be
able to see this. It should be so easy. We are all human. We all want the same
thing. We all want to live a free life, to be treated fairly with
loving-kindness. We all want our families to be safe and healthy. We all mourn
when our loved ones die. We were all created with certain inalienable rights.
We all agree that life is sacred and should not be destroyed. Why then, are we
spilling each other’s blood? How long will this go on?
“How long must we sing this song?”
“How long must we sing this song?”
Watch the video. If for no other reason than to see one of
the greatest live rock performances ever. Watch it and hear the passion in
Bono’s voice. Hear the passion in the playing of every instrument in the band.
Watch it and listen to the lyrics that cry out for us all to acknowledge that
we can be as one. Tonight. Watch and listen to the impassioned speech that Bono
makes about the revolution in Ireland. About how sick he is about the Irish
Americans that come up to him saying that they support the revolution, never
acknowledging the killing brought on by it. Bono shouts “Fuck the revolution.”
He has witnessed the ugliness of human beings being killed in the name of
revolution.
As Americans, we need to be careful in the use of our
language. Words are powerful. Words can incite violence. Words can incite
murder. Words can drive a mentally unstable person to grab his legally obtained
semi-automatic rifle and shoot up a theater, a school, or a nightclub.
How long before we dial down the rhetoric? How long before
we admit that the wide proliferation of firearms in this country lends itself
to more death, not less?
People come up to me and talk about their second amendment
rights. The say that our founding fathers guaranteed our right to have guns.
They don’t talk about the fact that there were no founding mothers weighing in
on that decision. They don’t talk about the fact that people of color were
still legally treated as chattel when that document was written. They don’t
talk about the fact that the idea of citizens owning weaponry capable of
killing dozens in a minute would have been a completely alien concept to those
founding fathers. They don’t talk about the children whose lives should have
continued past elementary school in Sandy Hook. They don’t talk about the now
dead potential of the students at Virginia Tech. They don’t talk about the
police officers who lost their lives because an angry person had an assault
rifle.
All they talk about is their right to bear arms. In the
video of U2 playing “Sunday, Bloody Sunday”, Bono talks of a terrorist attack
that had happened just that day. Eleven people killed in the name of
revolution. “Fuck the revolution!” he cries out. And I have witnessed the
weekly carnage in our American streets. And you have witnessed the carnage in
our streets. We should all be crying out “Fuck the right to bear arms!”
We can be as one. Let’s make it happen. Tonight.
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