Dripping Life, Feb 21

Although long forgotten, the neighborhood pick-up game of kick the can was especially popular during the Great Depression and the 1930s, because it didn’t require anything other than an empty can and a place to play. The game, itself, is a mix of hide-and-seek, tag and capture the flag, where one person (It) hides their eyes and counts to 50 while other players hide.

As “It” finds and chases players to “home base,” these tagged players are kept out of play until someone manages to make it home and kick the can. This allows all tagged players to re-enter the game that goes on until all players have been captured and are placed out of play.

In popular terms, “kicking the can” also has become a political term, where no solution is found for an identified problem and the problem is placed on a back burner until a later time.

Today’s politicians have become expert at kicking the can when it comes to addressing high school shootings. I have been thinking about this since last week, when we marked the first-year’s anniversary of the Parkland, Florida, Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School massacre in which 17 students and teachers were killed and 17 more were injured.

Here in Texas, we’ll also observe the first year’s anniversary of the slaughter at Santa Fe High School on May 18th, where 10 students and teachers were killed and 13 were wounded, including the shooter. 

I acknowledge most folks believe there’s no appropriate time to talk about gun control…certainly not immediately after such horrific happenings. But whenever it’s brought up, gun control is usually dismissed with remarks, such as “nobody’s gonna take my guns” or “when they took the guns away in Germany during the 1930s, Hitler took over.’

As a mother, grandmother and human being, I can admit, I was waiting for Congress to do something – anything – after Sandy Hook in 2012. Nothing changed.

One of our Texas lawmakers said recently, he doubted gun control would be discussed during the 86th Legislature, due to end later this year.

So, here’s my take on this continuing kick-the-can game:

1. No one wants anybody’s guns, and nobody challenges an individual’s right to protect their loved ones and their homes.

2. It would be helpful to have a better system of screening and registering gun buyers. I also would vote for better access to mental health providers and all of us getting mental health check-ups when we go for our annual physical exams.

3. I can’t wrap my head around people wanting bump stocks.

4. I, personally, don’t need a gun with me at church even though the Sutherland Springs Baptist Church massacre made me have second thoughts.

Several years ago, our house was broken into and many items of value taken, some irreplaceable family heirlooms.

When I asked the investigating officer what more we could have done to prevent the break-in, his response gave me pause: “‘Mam, if someone wants to get into your house, you can’t stop them.”

As it turned out, the desperate people who broke into our home were seeking items to sell to feed their drug habits. Like the man said, “If they wanted to get in, they would…no matter what you do to prevent it.”

I imagine the same goes for shooters. If they want to kill, they will. 

I’m just sorry our students have become such easy targets…and while there already has been a shooter on a campus this year (Feb. 8th in Baltimore, MD), let us stop to remember the lives forever changed by every horrific massacre of innocent Americans and let us pray the school shooting earlier this month will be the only one this year.