Letter: We must stop killing each other

This week is my birthday; however, for years, I have not truly celebrated it. I remain in a state of sadness. Two years ago, it was a knee to the neck of George Floyd.

At the time, I wrote about the virus of racial violence and that disease has only metastasized. Today, 21 lives were taken by this uniquely American epidemic.

In 1791, the Second Amendment was ratified; however, this central tenet of the Bill of Rights was carefully authored by James Madison and debated for years beforehand. According to Madisonian thought, a true constitutional balance of power entailed a "well-regulated" right to bear arms.

The Republican Party defends the filibuster in the name of checks and balances, but will they defend the lives of children utilizing identical logic? This similarly constructed argument ought to protect the right of our government, and by extension the hearts, minds and confidence of the American people, to intensely monitor the sales of guns in the United States as it is part of our foundational framework whereas the filibuster is merely a relic of the Jim Crow South.

I implore our leaders to summon whatever intestinal fortitude they still possess to draft legislation demanding background checks, bans on firearms for domestic abusers and the mentally ill and the plethora of common-sense reforms we must institute to honor Madison's thoughtful and foresightful legacy.

If my generation fails, we risk the degrading metamorphosis of American democracy at a time when the international depredations of dictatorship continue to knock on our door. The hatred that plagues us fills a place where the dream of love once lived. If we are to survive, and prepare ourselves for an uncertain geopolitical and economic future, we must stop killing each other and unite peacefully.

Henry J.H. Wilson

Barrington