Michiko's America

I don’t clean my kitchen until my kids come home from school.  Obviously, I don’t aspire to be a good homemaker.  But I have another reason for not being tidy. If the kitchen is clean and their snacks are ready, my kids will quickly eat it and disappear into their rooms.  But if I’m busy putting dishes in the dish washer and making clink-clank noises as I wash a pot, then they’ll get their snacks ready and talk to me while they’re eating.

“Mom, I can’t listen to the teachers!”  My son said, stretching his arms.  “Well, you need to pretend as if you were listening to them.”  To that he confessed, “I know, that’s what I do.  But then I start daydreaming!”  That’s fine, as long as you don’t bother other kids, but I didn’t say that to him.

The other day, my daughter staggered to the edge of the kitchen as if she was trying to decide what to do.  Then, I heard, “We’re all going to die anyway, so what’s the point of living?”

I had similar thoughts in my youth.  The answer that I drew with my cheeky logic wasn’t encouraging.  For example, you eat, digest and excrete. So, what’s the point of eating?  You learn, but when you die, your knowledge will go with you.  So, what’s the point?

I quickly responded to her question as I wanted to suppress my own ambivalence.

“I don’t know about the higher purpose of life; I think it’s different for each person.  But I believe our basic purpose here is to learn and appreciate how precious life is.”  I don’t really know how she took it.  But at least she now knows that even her mother has thought about it, therefore this must be a question that every human being explores at some point in their lives.

A couple of days later, on Valentine’s Day, there was a school shooting in Florida.  Many high school students’ lives were cut short.  On the Friday of that same week, I was with my friends at a local McDonald’s.  A doctor, an ex-lawyer, two substitute teachers, a business owner and myself.  We talked about health issues, kids’ education and their job prospects in the future, and finally the high school shooting.

Right after the 2016 Townville Elementary School shooting in California, I asked my son who was in elementary school, where he was going to hide if there was an emergency while they were in the gym.

“On the stage.” My heart sank. There was only a flimsy curtain to conceal the children from a shooter.  Children’s feet would be visible from the gym, the curtain would move.  Some kids would inevitably make noise.  It’s a target that a shooter would never miss.  I said to my son, “I don’t care what the gym teacher tells you.  You need to find a way to get out of there.  Hide in a different room or run away as fast as you can!”

After the Florida shooting, I asked him again, “What would you do if there was a lockdown in Middle School, and if you were between classes?” He said he would continue on to his next class.  I could barely keep my scream inside.  “That classroom may have already been locked down by the time you get there.  You need to run into the nearest classroom before the lockdown happens.”  As I was saying this, I became angry.  Why should we have to worry about school shootings?   This conversation shouldn’t be happening.

At a table in the corner, we shared our fears for our loved ones, but we tiptoed around the topic of gun control.  The second amendment to the United States Constitution, which protects the right of the people to keep and bear arms, was adopted on December 15, 1791.  Back then, they used muskets.  Since then a lot has changed in the U.S.  But gun control is such a politicized subject that people don’t want to talk about it in social settings like our morning coffee.  I understand all this, but still felt that something was missing or even wrong.  All of my friends in the U.S. with or without children, want to protect the young ones’ lives from any harm.  Yet, we’re afraid to talk about gun control.

In Japan, if you want to buy a gun, you have to spend an insane amount of time to prove your sanity.  And you need to show your local police where and how your guns are stored in the house.  As a result, according to GunPolicy.org, there were 6 gun deaths in Japan in 2014, and 33,599 in the U.S.  According to CNN.com, the Florida shooting was the eighth school shooting in 2018.

Regardless of your position on gun control, I believe we can all agree that we can’t accept this many gun deaths in the U.S.  Then, what would be a solution that accommodates our safety and the constitutional right to bear arms?

We already know that there’s no magic wand that can solve this conundrum in one fell swoop, so why don’t we consider baby steps?  That’s what Japanese do.  Respond to a situation and modify the system a bit.  I know this is not Americans’ preferred method, but an imperfect solution is still an improvement that can save the life of someone’s son or daughter.  Besides, there is no shortage of imperfection in all aspects of life.  Why do we expect a perfect solution for this?

I want to see two improvements.  I want every school in the U.S. to be a safe place, all the way through college.  I also want to prevent students killing other students.  To achieve these, we need two baby-step changes.  First, to ban the sale of any firearms to anyone who is under twenty-three years old.  Second, gun permits should be renewed every four years, like driver’s licenses, and should require a doctor’s certificate confirming your mental health.

I consider this a very fair request.  We as a society pour our love and resources to educate our children to be good members of society.  But a single moment of insanity can rob them of their right to live. This doesn’t make any sense.  Freedom of speech, freedom of choice, and freedom to bear arms.  But the freedom to live our precious life that was bestowed upon us and to live it as long as it was intended, is the most inviolable freedom.

It is sad that the young survivors of the Florida shooting have to serve as their own activists.  Some people see it as a positive sign, but for me it’s a proof that we have failed them.  Let us keep remind ourselves that their voices are also the voices of the fallen, not just who were killed on February 14, 2018 but also all other school shooting victims in the U.S. history.  So, let’s pay attention to the young survivors’ message and make gun control a part of our daily conversation.  We don’t know where this activism will lead.  But I want to show my appreciation of their pain and courage.  They’re doing this to save lives of students, yours and mine.  To support their cause, I will take my baby steps.