Earlier this year, the Cedar county Democratic Central Committee sponsored a public forum on the gun issue.  The sheriff presented his views, and gave technical information on weapons. This was still close on the heels of the Newtown shooting and all of the associated rhetoric.  I am not comfortable in  public speaking situations, and usually substance gets lost in the shuffle, so I decided to give the sheriff my views, on paper, ahead of the event.  I personally handed him this letter.  I believe that he did read it.

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Sheriff, some thoughts that I hope you will let “ride” for a while in your heart and mind.  I don’t know if you are religious or not,  but here are some views from that angle.

Just as some people “conceal carry” their guns, many people end up “conceal carrying”  their love for Jesus and his mission.

I am not ignorant nor naive about the dangers that living life here or anywhere else present.  I do however, choose to  “carry” Christ’s attitude.

From the many admonitions in both old and new testaments to “Be not afraid,” “Fear not I am with you,” to the teaching of the Beatitudes, “Blessed are the meek, the peacemakers, the merciful,”  to the commandment to “Love your neighbor as yourself,”  the constant message of the Bible is not to value your personal concerns over those of others.  In Matthew 6 we are called to “not resist an evildoer” and to “love your enemies.”

Luke 6 calls us not to judge, saying that the measure of mercy that we offer to others is the measure of mercy that he will show to us.   John 4 tells us that love has no room for fear.  Matthew 7 gives us the”golden rule ” of treating others in the manner in which we wish to be treated.   Luke 12 cautions us not to fear those who can kill our bodies, but rather to fear He who can send your soul to hell for all of eternity.   Luke 6 asks us to bless those who curse us.

In Matthew 18, Jesus tells the disciples that unless they change and become like children,they will never enter the Kingdom of God.  He is not referring to forgetting all of the information that they have accumulated throughout their lives, but rather approaching life with an attitude of innocence, openness, and trust  and delight.  He demands that we do not carry on as cynical adults, distrusting every unknown situation, putting up ” blackout” curtains around our souls and minds.  Let Him carry your fears, so that you can carry on His mission, remembering that what we do to the least of His children, we are doing directly to Him.

The four gospels are full of admonitions to be merciful, just, gentle and peaceful .  Jesus never commands us to protect ourselves from physical dangers or to regard our lives as more sacred than those of others.

I understand that man and other animals have an intensely strong instinct for self- preservation and survival , but Jesus never meant His path to be easy.  He calls on us to engage our hearts, minds and souls, elevating these over our base animal instincts.

Grace to you, and peace from God our father and The Lord Jesus Christ.

Getting away from the religious angle,  I still prefer not to live governed in every thought and attitude by fear.  On the day of the Aurora theater shooting,  how many theaters went about their business without incident? Same for Newtown, one school out of how many across our land? The number of those types of occurrences in any one person’s daily life  are not high enough to encourage me to carry a gun in hopes of preventing the next incident.

These numbers are high enough to justify implementing better mental health assistance and attitudes toward the mentally ill.  Blaming these on “evil” people is a cop- out.  Most mental illness can be managed if caught early.  Shall we spend the money on these problems in your department,  after an incident,  or in the mental health field aiming for less damage to the community, and possibly getting the individual back as a contributing member of the community?

On the political level of this issue are a couple of concerns.

I am certainly no where near giving up on our country’s legislative system or the concept of “rule of law.”   Knowing human nature,  every man for himself, plus guns doesn’t sound like a good program.

While certainly the world’s best government, it is not perfect,  hasn’t ever been perfect. We have worked on it for more than two hundred years, and like a marriage, it will need to be worked on every day until the end of time.  Perfection is not an achievable goal.  If you have read the federalist and anti federalist papers, you know that there were many arguments over many issues.  The founding fathers did not succeed in getting everyone to agree with each other, they reached what they hoped would be a workable compromise.  They made some decisions and moved ahead.  They came up with the final language on the constitution, and then proceeded to add the bill of rights.  These were well educated men who carefully phrased their words. From that point we have added more amendments over the years , as well as removing an amendment.  The recently donated copy of the Constitution in the courthouse is not our current version of the document.

Two hundred years ago,  they had no idea of the complexities we would be actually dealing with in our time.
Perhaps our experiment in Democracy has run its course. I don’t think it has, nor do I want that.  You have maybe heard the saying that the only constant in life is change. This has some truth to it. Our culture changes daily in tiny ways and occasionally in big bursts.  What we cannot do is pick a time in history and remain there.

I would want those who talk about tyranny to remember that after the  American Revolution, and every other insurrection in the world, after all the killing and property damage were finished, the future direction of our country and the others depended upon those who showed up with pen and paper to negotiate.  Perhaps we could get back to negotiating and discussing, without the tyranny and insurrection parts?

All the rights we have “bump up” against the rights of others.  When and where do we place the boundaries?

Thanks for your time,

Laura Twing

Laura Twing lives in Cedar county, with her husband and various animal companions.