We all know why people don’t want guns. They think that it will decrease violence rate, they don’t want to be killed, they don’t want to have to deal with the threat every day of their lives. We also know why people want guns, to protect themselves, to be able to defend themselves, because it is a constitutional right. Most people, however, don’t listen to the other side. They have one point of view and only one point of view. There is no compromise, no listening, just debating, or even arguments, which lead to various disasters. Just like in Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe, Okonkwo wouldn’t listen to the Christians, he hated them and didn’t want them there. The District commissioner also didn’t want Okonkwo and his men, he thought they were all savages. In the end they were both wrong, and this language and communication issue caused Okonkwo his life. Gun users and gun control advocates, should not shut their minds off to their perspective only. In order to reach some consensus on this issue, everyone must open their minds and hearts, otherwise the nation will not go anywhere, but instead be stuck on this issue forever. Many political figures agree that “We must listen to each other’s complains, to restore calm” (Sun Online). America has already lost too many lives to lose anymore because no one wishes to listen to the other person. Does everyone wish to lose more lives because no one can agree on anything? Is that how this great nation will fall? Everyone must band together and come to a consensus, an agreement, or compromise of some sort. Otherwise we will meet our tragic downfall soon too.
Works Cited
"We Must Listen to Each Other's Complaints, to Restore Calm:
President." Sun Online. Sun Media Online, 2011. Web. 23 May
2013.
Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. New York: Anchor, 1994. Print
I don't think that it is necessarily that they they the other side is "wrong," but merely a "my side is better than your side because I identify with it." Sure, there are some more immature people who will argue that the other side is wrong, simply because it does not match up with their ideas. But, in social issues, there really is no one "right" or "wrong" view because social issues are very subjective. Sure, you can bring in statistics, but how one spins those stats determines the validity, so to speak, of each view.
ReplyDeleteI read Things Fall Apart about 4 or 5 years ago, so it is hard for me to elaborate on the literary connection, but, it is the tension between Okonkwo and the District that plagues all social debates to various extents. Gun control advocates may argue that anti-gun control citizens have no basis because of various anecdotes and/or statistics. The opposite is just as true. However, as a culture, we need to move away from this Okonkwo vs. The District, Gun Control vs. Anti-Gun Control mindset to find a middle ground that all sides can agree upon.