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Gustavo Gac-Artigas

Apropos of Another Tragedy: What if, for once, We Said ENOUGH?

Some time ago I wrote, “it is not enough to say nous sommes Paris.” Yesterday, I heard “we are Orlando” and as time progresses we will be this or another city, we will be Pulse and will be Bataclan, we will be the victims of silence or of phrases that have lost all their meaning to irrationality.

What if, for once, we approached the problem differently? If, for once, we got fatigued of the same people repeating the same old speeches with the only changes being the number of victims, the city, and the place?

What if, for once, we thought differently and we said ENOUGH?

Sorry, President Obama, but you failed us. The Constitution gives us the right to live in peace, in safety, in security, the right not to be afraid because we belong to a particular group be it social, racial, ethnic, religious or of sexual orientation. After long struggles, the Constitution guaranteed us the right to think, and live our lives, differently, to reject hatred and accept difference. Mr. President, among other things, we elected you to guarantee us this right, yet one after another, massacres tell us that the State has failed us, that the fallen were easy prey, that we: you, the reader, and I, remain easy preys.

It is not enough to declare that stronger measures will be taken to make more complicated that assault weapons fall into the hands of terrorists, criminals or madmen; not to mention that the frontier among them is very subtle. That speech is repetitive, and unfortunately so is the result.

Greater control? NO.

We need to ban the sale of such kinds of weapons! And not just their sale, we need to make illegal to possess them. Nothing justifies keeping such types of firearms in our homes. Make them illegal, Mr. President. Have those who possess them declare them and turn them in. Have them know that there will be a sentence if found guilty of possession. That will cost money it is true. Let´s make the weapon manufacturers, the traffickers of death pay for them. Enough have they already earned by selling weapons for senseless wars.

And you, presidential candidates and political leaders, do not dare to use the pain of the victims and their families for your political campaigns. Have a sense of decency, for the dead, for those to come.

You, Mr. Trump, do not dare to use this or any other tragedy for your campaign. A xenophobic, racist, populist candidate, who has issued statements that embarrass the whole country, has no right to use and abuse of the pain of others.

Nobody has the right to use other people´s sufferings for political purposes.

You, Mrs. Clinton, do not dare to channel this tragedy and the pain of families in your favor. Do not forget that you supported the war in Iraq, that not so long ago you were one of the most powerful women on the planet, that you were a prominent member of a US government, and yet, assault weapons continue to be sold and circulate among us, and tragedies continue to happen. Ripping your garments apart and last minute statements detract your credibility.

It has come the time that we, future victims, unite to demand our constitutional right to life, security, and happiness. It has come the time for us to raise our voices and say enough before we have to hear the next speech in which the media will show us images of “today we are all Paris,” “today we are all Orlando”, “today we are all…”

ENOUGH. For my children, I say ENOUGH, for my neighbors, I say ENOUGH, for my friends, I say ENOUGH, and I beg you, for me, please say ENOUGH.

Gustavo Gac-Artigas, Chilean-American writer, Contributing Member of the Academia Norteamericana de la Lengua Española (North American Academy of the Spanish Language) Original version in Spanish published in several digital papers including  Tribuna Abierta, agencia EFE, Le Monde Diplomatique-Chile edition. 

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