The Politics of "More"

The Rochester alternative weekly paper, City Newspaper, recently published one of my letters. In it I engage a previous letter writer in order to make a point about the "politics of more" and going along with what our rulers tell us, but passing it off as some profound conserative insight.

The following is the unedited, full letter I submitted for publication.

The Politics of "More"

In response to Italo G. Savella's letter titled "Violence: Guns and Virginia Tech" printed in the May 1st issue:

Italo starts his letter saying he is sick of the “media-driven culture.” Never mind the fact that his letter itself slings around the same media rhetoric about "liberals", "political correctness" and even the proverbial shot at "gangsta rappers." The most glaring issue I have with his letter is that it doesn’t say anything new.

Rather, it is part of the chorus of "more." Terrorists use violence against Americans? More bombs! Two failed, unpopular wars? More troops! Crime rates on the rise? More cops! More prisons! A disturbed student kills 32 students at VA Tech in a hail of gunfire? More guns! More, More, More...more of the same.

What you never hear from the "more crowd": More diplomacy! More healthcare! More job training! Contrary to Italo's claim that "political correctness" doomed the VA student victims, an under funded and understaffed mental health system doomed them. This individual was identified, examined, but deemed not serious enough to follow up with, because our health system is so rationed and strapped for cash, they have to prioritize only the sickest of all patients.

Contrary to Italo's picture of events, the massively armed and highly trained SWAT teams could do nothing to protect the students inside the buildings. The same scenario played out at Columbine. State of the Art police forces, watching a massacre play out. I am not questioning the bravery of any of these policemen; surely they did all they could. I am questioning the logic of "more police/weapons = more safety." With the most imprisoned population in the world, by Italo's logic, shouldn't we be the most safe?

Furthermore, the VA Tech massacre would have been a relatively good day in Baghdad. There is a contradiction in a society that seems to celebrate the violence of the state (war, executions), but demonizes the violence of the individual. In either case, all we seem to get is “more” of both. Its time we get a different kind of "more", and guaging by the 2006 mid-term elections, its seems a majority of Americans agree. More action by congress to stop this war, more organizing in the communities, and more demands for aid where it is needed most, in Iraq, in Walter Reeed, in New Orleans, and in our poverty stricken cities.


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The edited, electronic version of the letter that also ran in the print edition