If I can’t dance, I don’t wish to be in your revolution.
—Emma Goldman
One yr after the mass capturing in Uvalde, Texas, officers are nonetheless ducking and weaving; nonetheless doing little to curb quick access to weapons all through the state.
The Texas Two-Step, a once-scandalous waltz carried out all through the Lone Star State, was acknowledged as a flowery Bohemian dance known as a redowa—a Czech phrase which means to steer or whirl round. Apparently, steering and whirling round was what law enforcement officials in Uvalde have been doing for 77 minutes on the grounds of Robb Elementary Faculty on Could 24, 2022.
No matter whirling round police might have been doing exterior, when the siege inside was over two lecturers and 19 kids lay lifeless on their classroom flooring. No Texas Two-Step for them. Ever.
When you’re sensing anger (suppose: fictional Howard Beale in Community shouting, “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore”), I hope you can also sense my eyes welling up with tears. Tears for the lifeless kids, lecturers and their households in Uvalde—no Memorial Day barbecues for them—and tears, too, for his or her 2023 counterparts in Allen and Cleveland, suburbs of Dallas and Houston, and in each different metropolis and city within the U.S. the place explosive AR-15 firepower retains breaking the psychic sound barrier—and the hearts—of individuals from Louisville, Ky., to Nashville, Tenn.; Dadeville, Ala., to Farmington, N.M. (Itemizing all the communities the place mass shootings have occurred thus far in 2023 would have left no room to jot down anything. Perhaps that’s the purpose.)
To deliver an finish to the NRA’s ballets of loss of life in faculties, malls, banks, homes of worship, supermarkets, film theaters, evening golf equipment and music festivals (have I missed wherever?), we’ll have to design a dance for all times, snaking our means by way of the streets of each village, city, metropolis and state, and in Washington, D.C. We’ll want a sustained residents’ flash mob rebellion in each metropolis corridor foyer and each state Capitol rotunda.
In their name for stricter gun management legal guidelines, Tennessee state Reps. Justin Pearson, Justin Smith and Gloria Johnson have been on the forefront of a sustained residents’ marketing campaign that did present up within the state Capitol in Nashville. And, with a Tennessean peace drive of hundreds behind them, Gov. Invoice Lee lastly pledged to name the legislature again into session in July to move new gun security legal guidelines. As of this writing, he’s didn’t preserve that promise.
What wouldn’t it seem like to reimagine the Texas Two-Step “steering and whirling round” in a nonviolent nationwide dance? What function might males play in steering society to security?
Too many guys—wrongly stereotyped as having two left toes—however too usually stand flatfooted on the sidelines, whereas girls are the forefront of actions aimed toward stopping gun violence. Whereas males is probably not recognized for dancing, we do know march.
So, males—as males—it is a pivotal second. We have to comply with girls’s lead onto the dance flooring of change. We have to use our id as males to advance life-saving gun management measures. Father’s Day is simply across the nook. It’s an apt second to leverage our function—if not as a dad, then as a coach, mentor, uncle, or grandfather—to steer our sons and nephews on a march for peace.
With mass shootings a weekly incidence, we can not overlook who the murderers are: nearly solely white males. Proper-wing gun proponents all the time give attention to the psychological well being of the (primarily white, male) shooter. They by no means wish to speak about both his gender or the direct hyperlink between the social insurance policies they embrace and the loneliness and alienation many disaffected males expertise.
Till or except we acknowledge their plight and start to socialize boys based mostly on a mannequin of manhood that cultivates compassion, empathy and cooperation over competitiveness, enmity and condemnation, we’ll miss a golden alternative to choreograph a brand new route for society.
Perhaps there’ll by no means be a swing dance known as the Texas Peace Step, however imagining it’s the least we will do to honor the reminiscences of these murdered in Uvalde, and all the opposite victims and survivors of American gun violence.
Up subsequent:
U.S. democracy is at a harmful inflection level—from the demise of abortion rights, to an absence of pay fairness and parental depart, to skyrocketing maternal mortality, and assaults on trans well being. Left unchecked, these crises will result in wider gaps in political participation and illustration. For 50 years, Ms. has been forging feminist journalism—reporting, rebelling and truth-telling from the front-lines, championing the Equal Rights Modification, and centering the tales of these most impacted. With all that’s at stake for equality, we’re redoubling our dedication for the following 50 years. In flip, we want your assist, Help Ms. as we speak with a donation—any quantity that’s significant to you. For as little as $5 every month, you’ll obtain the print journal together with our e-newsletters, motion alerts, and invites to Ms. Studios occasions and podcasts. We’re grateful on your loyalty and ferocity.
