One thing that’s always shocked me is that, from what I’ve been able to tell, the vast majority of activists on the other side are people who are channeling their grief into the movement to ban or severely limit gun rights. We would seem to have the first of what no doubt will be many gun control activists created by this high profile tragedy.
It’s not uncommon, and certainly not limited to gun policy in this country. Many individuals who lost loved ones to lung cancer have gone on to become anti-smoking crusaders, for instance. Bitter and I both lost parents, hers arguably to smoking and poor lifestyle choices, and mine to breast cancer. This kind of channeling grief into activism is a difficult thing for both of us to understand, and I’ve pondered why some people channel their grief into public activism while others either don’t get the idea or are put off by it. I tend to have a negative view of channeling grief into activism, no matter what the activism, because when I went through it, I didn’t think it was the world’s duty to revolve around what I was going through, and what happened to my mother.
That’s one reason I’m not a huge breast cancer advocate, nor is Bitter an anti-smoking activist. Lots of diseases kill people, and breast cancer being a leading killer, will always get research money, mostly because big, evil pharma companies want to make money selling those treatments. Bitter, similarly, views her father’s poor lifestyle choices as just that, his choice.
In the aftermath of the tragedy in Arizona, I feel for the victims, but particularly the ones who don’t want their grief made into a public spectacle. If I were in that situation, I would deeply resent the news coverage, and attempts by groups to try to manipulate my circumstances for their own gain in the public arena. If I spoke out, it would only be to condemn them.
