Here is a Letter to the Editor that Natalie, one of the Lemond Language trainers, wrote for a newspaper in the Midwestern USA. It's interesting how time abroad can make us question things that people back home take for granted (it seems normal, natural, "a given").
Leave us some comments and let us know what you think!
To the Editor:
I learned of the latest college campus shooting spree at Northern Illinois University the morning after it occurred via Internet at my apartment in Paris. A few hours later my sister called me from her home in London. Aside from sadness and disbelief, we both had a similar reaction: What is wrong with American society? And why are politicians and citizens alike choosing to stick their heads in the sand instead of mobilizing to protect our children and ourselves? Somehow the rules of normalcy and the dictates of a peaceful American society have been skewed to include horrendous, violent behavior by its members, replicated practically nowhere else in the world today.
A little refresher on normalcy: it is not normal to go to a university lecture, a high school, a mall or a post office and get mown down with guns. This does not occur in most Western, Asian or Middle Eastern countries. The frequency and scope of these shooting rampages continue to shock in Europe where use of guns continues to be restricted to law enforcement officials and licensed hunters. Equally troublesome is the general denial with which American politicians and the general public respond. Certainly, it sometimes takes distance to see the forest from the trees. Living in societies in which gun use is banned on the other side of the Atlantic clearly puts the horror of the situation into relief. But are Americans really so myopic as to have to stare down the barrel of a gun before confronting the enormity of this problem?
Last Tuesday I cast my vote for Barack Obama in the Parisian branch of the Democrats Abroad-organized Democratic global primary. Thankfully, franchise has empowered us to weigh in on our candidates' merits and platforms in the primaries for the first time in history from abroad. It is surprising; however, that gun control has not been a pivotal issue during the 2008 primaries, especially in the wake of high-casualty campus shootings. The War in Iraq is naturally a critical platform point because it involves American human lives; the same should hold true for American civilians carrying on their day-to-day activities. While I understand the tremendous power of the NRA in the United States, I would hope that politicians, led by the insistence of their constituents, would take on this issue head-on.
I was born and raised in Cedar Falls, Iowa, and will remain an American no matter how long I live in France. I will think twice, however, before deciding to raise my own children in a society in which his or her very life is at risk when going to school, a society which facilitates easy access to gun purchase and use, and which instead of trying to tackle this very large problem by passing gun control legislation, amplifies it by giving it huge media-play.
There have already been many US citizens laid to rest as victims of gun violence. For those of us living abroad, unsure of the country in which we'd like to finally settle, this may be the final nail in the coffin.
Sincerely,
Natalie Kettner
Paris, France
