A Tale of Two Tucsons

January 8, 2013 — 2 Comments

Coopers Hawk Fledgling

I live in the middle of Tucson like Gabrielle Giffords. She lives somewhere just south of my neighborhood in a much fancier part of town. On the anniversary of her shooting two years ago, today there are ceremonies to ring bells, hang bells, pray, and commemorate. Tucson seems to me less peaceful, less educated, more reactionary, and more dangerous than it was two years ago.  The city creates PR about how we have come together as more civil and less crazed, less armed, less scary…as IF!!!!!!

Where I live the cops do not respond for at least an hour and then they do not bother to even report the crimes you report to them. Nobody calls them because nobody wants to wait around for no reason. The gun store close to my house has had an overflowing parking lot for the last month. My next door neighbor who goes to the shooting range with a bunch of cops on Sundays told me their highly armed group is freaking out because there is no ammo in town to be purchased.  They know that the government is a threat to their freedom, and want to buy all the ammo they may need to defend themselves against the government when they try to take their arms.

While commemoration is all well and good, there are plenty of mentally ill people roaming the streets where I live with instant access to weapons. Unfortunately, they have no access to or interest in mental health therapies.  There are no cracks to slip through because there is virtually no safety net to treat mentally ill Tucsonans. There is a place where they can score prescription drugs, but no therapy.  There is no evidence of effective law enforcement. If Gabby stayed in my neighborhood for a few days she would understand how futile law passing is.  With all due respect to her point of view, nobody enforces the laws we have now.  Why would adding more laws have a positive effect?  I notice a frightening negative effect in the ammo buying population, all agitated and wanting more arms.  Every action has an equal and opposite reaction.  It bears repeating, gentle reader.