USA: A Country with a Gun
There is no more denying it.
I just finished reading an advance copy of a stunning new book by National Book Award-winner Jason Mott. He won the award in 2021 for his hilarious novel Hell of a Book, and his new one, People Like Us, is a sequel—an admittedly autobiographical story of a National Book Award-winner, a man in Black skin, on a book tour to Minneapolis and throughout “Euroland.” It is funny, deeply moving, and timely, but since I’m trying to sell a review of it before it launches on August 5th, I’m not going say much more … Except be smart and pre-order it! (Anywhere but Amazon, if you care about supporting democracy.)
At the end of People Like Us, Mott writes one of the most succinct historical statements I’ve read about the old U.S. of A.: “Let me tell you a story, kid. A story about a family, a story about a gun, because that’s what all American stories are and, in spite of ourselves, that’s what we’ll always be.”
Jason Mott is right. We started with guns, and now, with the advent of sanctioned thugs with no training grabbing people with Black and Brown skin off the streets and disappearing them, it’s official policy. But is it written in stone that this is what we’ll always be?
I will soon publish a piece I wrote for a new magazine and I’ve been working on an intro to it for a Substack column. And because it is a piece about non-family-type people (who probably don’t have guns because they’ve abandoned the fight), I’ve once again delved into the dismal statistics about our violent culture that Hallmark cards and social media posts would have you believe are an anomaly rather than the massive part of the American population they are. Take a look:
Drug overdoses: https://nida.nih.gov/research-topics/trends-statistics#costs
and https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/drug-overdose-data.htm
Poverty: https://www.census.gov/newsroom/stories/poverty-awareness-month.html
Domestic violence: https://ncadv.org/STATISTICS
Sexual assault: https://www.nsvrc.org/statistics
Childhood sexual abuse: https://victimsofcrime.org/child-sexual-abuse-statistics/
This is a tiny reported tip of a gigantic iceberg of the American population—most of whom do not call authorities, so they are not even recorded in available statistics.
It Is a Time of Reckoning
I believe what is out in the open now is what’s always been there in the shadows: we are not a happy people.
Our discontent has been fueled by elected bigots on one side, and those who prefer to deny statistics on the other—to a point where there is no option but explosion into the streets. The racism, antisemitism, crazy rage at “wokeness,” and the oblivious arrogance of those who want to simply declare they are right and anybody who does not agree is stupid or evil is at critical mass.
Did that paragraph confuse you? Read it again. It all really does belong together.
Yes, there is true evil and cruelty erupting on the right, but it began as festering resentment at being ignored and demeaned by people who believe in cancel culture.
Although I’m a democracy advocate and passionate lefty activist, in one way I currently stand right in between those two sides and it is a weird place to be.
I am a non-religious Ashkenazi Jew who was completely unprepared for the antisemitism of progressive publications I wrote for following the October 7th Hamas attack of Israelis at a music festival. Suddenly the mention of being Jewish was cause for a slap. Submission sites proudly proclaimed that they would not receive work from Zionists (people who believe they have a right to a country) or Israelis or those who support them. Two articles in a row that were accepted for publication became the brunt of this cancel culture for mentions of Jewishness. I pulled one when my editor first asked me to expand a section, and when I did and it turned into a story of antisemitism right now, he exploded that antisemitism did not exist in publishing and academia. And in the second instance, after an editor asked me to linger on a section that, unbeknownst to him, yielded a personal Jewish story, he ghosted me, then when he finally published the piece, he left it out of the Table of Contents.
I have explained to “friends” who loudly post “Free Palestine” that this is a dog whistle for Jews, written with the intention of saying Jews have no right to a country … or to exist. And these people have persisted in posting it. Either they believe this or they simply don’t care. Is it the arrogance I mentioned? I don’t know. But there is something to the right’s resentment toward people who are so certain of their righteousness that they wipe out other people’s experiences and pain if they do not comport with their own.
And so, many on the right have found their candidate, who will now treat them even worse than the people who accused them of stupidity. With the bang of a gavel, Trump et al. have taken away their health care, canceled food programs for children, and given their money to billionaires.
So what do we do?
There is a group of Jewish and Palestinian Israelis who are working together for peace. Standing Together espouses “a true partnership based on shared interests,” and seeing the real oppressor. It is not the populations of warring people. It is those who pit them against each other and then squash them until they burst. It is the Trumps, the Netanyahus, Hamas, and Hezbollah—those whose only interest is personal power and money.
Can those of us on the streets begin to look at one another with softer eyes? Can we welcome people who are hurting and ready to shift sides—people like the January 6th rioter Pamela Hemphill who refused a pardon. People like the “former red hat” woman recently interviewed by Dr. Pru Lee about leaving MAGA. People like Rich Logis, interviewed by Adam Kinzinger about his work to help other MAGA supporters who are trying to shift sides. (Kinzinger calls his interview a “roadmap” and writes: “If we want to rebuild trust in democracy, restore shared truth, and rescue people from the grip of authoritarian politics, we need to listen to people like Rich. … Be sure to visit Rich’s organization at Leavingmaga.org.”)
As the full effect of the Big Ugly policies squeeze the very people who voted Trump in, there will be more shifting. I have read posts expressing vitriol, wishing all the pain they’ve voted for to be rained on those responsible for Trump’s election. This attitude will only perpetuate the violence.
Can those of us on the left who are truly committed to peace and justice for all prepare to welcome humiliated MAGA refugees because they are in pain? The time for righteous condemnation must end. It’s time to drop the guns.
Betsy Robinson is an editor, fiction writer, journalist, and playwright. She has written about books for Publishers Weekly, Lithub, Oh Reader, and many other publications. Her novels Cats on a Pole and The Spectators were published by Kano Press in 2024. She writes funny stories about flawed people and examines our herd culture. www.BetsyRobinson-writer.com.