March 14, 2018

Today is a good day because it’s raining and it is always a good day when it rains in California, but most importantly, today is a good day because you are all here to remember the victims of the Parkland shooting.

One factor that often goes overlooked is that mass shootings are a reassertion of patriarchy, an expression of the most toxic masculinity possible. They arise because we live in a culture where boys and men are taught that violence is the way to resolve problems, at many levels. Internationally, when the government has a problem with another country, what is the solution? Torture them! Bomb them! Use violence. Nationally, the police’s first line of action is violence: shoot first, particularly if there is a man of color involved. Heroes are always violent in all forms of pop culture, from movies to video games. Is it any wonder, then, that mass shooters have histories of domestic violence too?

We know domestic violence is a way for men to enforce patriarchy in the home; mass murder is the way for these men and boys to seek power, to find notoriety, fame, heroism—

But who benefits from this? The weapons industry. Every time a man shoots dozens of people, their stock goes up. The NRA gets a lot of criticism and that is justified, but they are only a mouthpiece for corporate power. Their money does not come from the dues of Americans who believe they have the right to own assault weapons. The real money comes from the weapons industry—we mustn’t leave them off the hook! They fuel violence abroad (selling weapons to multiple countries and groups worldwide) and they fuel violence at home.

We know for a fact that in households where there are weapons, those guns will not be used against intruders. Those guns will be used by men to kill the women and children in the family and often kill themselves. And meanwhile, the weapons industry benefits from every single death.

Corporate power controls the US government and also hurts what’s left of our formal democracy. Every poll tells us most Americans want gun control, and yet, massacre after massacre; the Congress and the White House do nothing. The weapons industry dominates their actions on these matters. The government represents their interests, not the interests and welfare of the American people. That is not democracy.

So there is our work: true democracy, an end to corporate power, and the elimination of patriarchal domination. Go big or go home!

Today is a good day. It is raining and thousands of young people across the country are saying enough is enough! We’re mad as hell and we’re not going to take it anymore! The road is long but you don’t walk alone. Together we can and will create the world we want to see, without domination, and without violence. So let’s start teaching our boys and our men that violence has nothing to do with manhood. There is no place—no place—for any kind of weapons in the household, in our schools, or in civil society.