The spinning hoop goes round and round

As I stood on stage last week with my band, little brown-eyed Isabella smiled right in front of us, twirling her hula-hoop around her hips. She hula-hooped through our entire 90-minute show.

And so near the end of the show I called for the band to swerve out of our set list so I could sing “Brown-Eyed Girl” and dedicate it to her. The crowd of more than 800 erupted in applause for this energetic little 8-year-old girl — the real headliner of the night.

It was a perfect evening at Fountainview Arena in Huntley, with ideal temperatures and low humidity as the sun sank toward the horizon in a cloudless sky. Friendly neighbors gathered in the park as they have done for centuries in America to hear a band play some of their favorite songs—the kind of scene Norman Rockwell might have painted to commemorate all that is wonderful about this land.

Behind the band, the soft breeze rippled the stars and stripes…which flew at half-mast.

This was not the band’s first time playing at Fountainview Arena. I have photos at home of us playing there other times — at least once with the flag also at half-mast.

I am ashamed to admit that I do not remember the reason the flag flew at half-mast in that photo. It was likely because of a horrific mass shooting, like the carnage in Dayton and El Paso that lowered the flag during this summer’s concert. There have been at least 17 mass homicides in America this year alone — or far more, depending on your definition of mass homicide.

Crowds at our Fountainview concerts have run as high as 1200 in past summers, even on days that were hot and sticky or that threatened rain. Still, we were glad this summer to see 800 revelers gather on the grassy hillside to hear us play on this perfect day. Maybe, we rationalized, some stayed home because the Cubs were playing. Maybe some opted to watch the Bears’ opening preseason game.

Or maybe some stayed home because the flag was at half-mast.

After all, who can blame people for being gun-shy about large gatherings these days? Not after two public massacres within a 24-hour period. Citizens all over the nation scramble from streets after a motorcycle backfires, or dash from a Missouri Walmart when an attention-getting moron strolls in wearing body armor and carrying an assault weapon with a fully-loaded mega-magazine.

In his defense, that moron did nothing illegal. At least not according to cowardly state and federal lawmakers who are loath to offend gun owners clinging to their right to strap on their firepower and amble through a crowd in search of a smoothie.

In response, all across America, citizens take to the streets waving signs that say “Do something!” They hope their signs will make a difference.

They won’t.

At least they won’t make a difference to the people who have the power right now to do something — the senate and the president. Too many of those office-holders are too beholden to wealthy interest groups and fear they will not be re-elected if the NRA money dries up.

Those office-holders had the chance to do something to stop the slaughter 17 times this year alone. They didn’t. They won’t. Instead, they twitch their puppet arms and parrot NRA nonsense that gun mayhem has nothing to do with high-capacity assault-style guns — or that only more guns can stop the mayhem.

The president, for example, said that mental illness pulled the trigger, not the gun. He went on to demonize the mentally ill as “monsters.” Never mind the fact that the El Paso shooter confessed that it was racist hatred, not mental illness, that inspired him. Experts say that mental illness accounts for less than one percent of all homicides.

Eighteen months ago, right after the Parkland slayings, the president promised tougher background checks.

Didn’t happen then. Won’t happen now. Not under his NRA-financed watch.

And so, as I say, expect no change from our president or our sitting legislators, no matter how many signs you carry to the streets.

Still, the “Do something” signs can be of value, if the right person reads them.

And the right person to read the sign is you.

You are not powerless. Do something. Vote for candidates with sensible gun control ideas, and maybe even help support them financially.

It is possible to limit the damage inflicted by guns, just as it has been possible to limit the damage inflicted by cars, and cigarettes, and dozens of other potentially deadly agents. And the damage can be limited not by banning those deadly agents, but by managing and limiting them in reasonable and responsible ways.

Decide for yourself which limits on guns are fair while still allowing responsible citizens to enjoy their guns safely. Universal background checks? Limits on high-capacity magazines? Stronger regulation of Internet and gun-show sales? Gun-owner licensing? Mandatory training in order to possess certain classes of guns?

There are candidates out there with ideas. But the ideas will only work if you care enough to vote them in place next year, when elections come spinning back once again, like Isabela’s tireless hula hoop.

Don’t accept “thoughts and prayers” as the answer the next time a massacre happens. Not all candidates are owned by the NRA. Listen to them. Study them.

And stop shrugging your shoulders the next time it happens, expecting cowardly self-serving lawmakers to fix it. American voters put those callous toadies there. American voters can send them packing next year.

And if we don’t, we have only ourselves to blame.

Americans will decide what kind of country little Isabela will live in for the rest of her life—may it be long and filled with smiles and music.

And if we do the right thing, other kids will someday feel free to join her in front of the band with their hula hoops, instead of sitting on the grassy hillside gathered close beside their parents and grandparents, afraid to let the brood wander too far, just in case…

How important is that to you? How many of your rights are you willing to reasonably limit to see that it happens?

Do something.

Author, musician and storyteller TR Kerth is a retired teacher who has lived in Sun City Huntley since 2003. Contact him at trkerth@yahoo.com. Can’t wait for your next visit to Planet Kerth? Then get TR’s book, “Revenge of the Sardines,” available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other online book distributors.

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