Opinion

It’s been way too long since I lit a sparkler as the sun goes down on the Fourth of July.

You’ve probably seen the screaming headlines about a Gallup survey revealing that Americans’ belief in God has hit an all-time low.

In a House Judiciary Committee hearing after the massacre of 19 students and two teachers in Uvalde, U.S. Rep. Chip Roy argued that 18-year-olds should be able to purchase and carry assault rifles, the type of weapon the 18-year-old shooter had just used on children. Why? Because, he said, the weapons might be needed to use against the government in case, for example, …. there were attempts to lock us in apartment buildings like they do in China to stamp out COVID.

Americans are so angry about so many things — with partisan politics topping the list.

When the draft Supreme Court opinion overturning the constitutional right to an abortion was leaked to the media last month, it tore through Washington, D.C. with the force of a category five hurricane. The draft set off a mad scramble to pronounce the dynamic of the congressional midterm election had been irrevocably altered and the Republican wave momentum blunted.

Time is the enemy. A week has passed since 21 people were murdered in an elementary school in Uvalde, an atrocity still at the center of public and private attention and concern.

Mass shootings in Texas have become so common, they begin to collectively feel familiar. But each lands with fresh horror.

In the wake of every mass killing in this country, politicians do what politicians do, which is to circle their respective wagons and offer solutions that fail to get to the heart of the issue.