In the United States, a six-year-old toddler shot his teacher point-blank. Yes, a little scoundrel dared to bring a gun to class and had the audacity to point it at his mistress and shoot like one would shoot a hare or a partridge.
The event went around the world and moved more than one “normal” human being.
We could say that what is happening in the country of democracy, law and freedom is normal. We could shout “long live America!” Long live freedom!”
But what freedom are we talking about when a brat imp can carry a gun, without his parents knowing if he really has one, dare to cross the school doors, enter the classroom and open fire on the very person responsible for teaching it? But there is no fire!
The information says that he had an altercation with his teacher, but listen, can a six year old child have an altercation with an adult, especially his teacher? How can a six-year-old dare to stand up to his teacher? Geez, what heated discussion, quarrel or fight can a six-year-old child engage in with an adult who is his father or mother’s age?
It seems that for once the little trickster was treated like a normal criminal, thrown into police custody and probably that he will spend time in prison. When stupidity begins to make people laugh, it is because ignominy no longer hurts common sense. And it’s not enough to be the best at everything and everywhere. It’s not enough to be the most powerful on the planet. You still have to be clear! It’s not enough to be at the cutting edge of technology and look at the world from a bird’s eye view.
True power is that which makes its citizens worthy and responsible. True performance is not necessarily after the finish line of the carpeted tracks, it is often found in the experience of the arduous course which teaches with each stride that the best competition is the one which one leads with oneself in the den of human and social values.
But what is the life of an American citizen worth in the face of the interests of an arms industry, and therefore violence and kingmaker? In a country where the minimum legal age for carrying a weapon is between 18 and 21, why get upset when a social failure decides to enter history at the end of the deadly barrel in a casual shooting? When the gun lobby relies on the Second Amendment of the Constitution to
“sacralizing” the carrying of firearms to the detriment of the life of a citizen, you have to be too developed not to see the flaw too big on your own size.
We can knock on wood but what’s the point, America of golden records has decided to draw lots for the fate of the average person rather than twist the neck of an amendment without feeling, for lack of consent. Behind freedom, there is sometimes a wandering captivity and democracy which gains supremacy does not throw the people into disorder. It ensures that the freedom to act is in accordance with the right to live.
But what good is the right to live when the freedom to carry a weapon encourages the freedom to use it? What limit is there between freedom and responsibility, when six-year-old “spoiled babies” stain their hands with blood from the cradle of parental inconsistency?
What education and what values can we instill in a child, if not that of his parents, his culture, his history? How can we educate a society built on violence to live in tolerance, without weapons, at the risk of losing its charm in the detours of a din that calls for drama?
Between the innocent, guilty little criminal, his indelicate failing parents, the sinister arms manufacturers who do good business and the heretic politician who plays ostrich, whose fault is it?
You just have to imagine that a six-year-old Burkinabè shot his school teacher point-blank, to quickly find answers to all these questions. You only need to think for a single moment that your six-year-old son shot his friend with your gun to quickly jump up and cry out about the nightmare. Because at least at six years old in our country, a child
“educated” from educated parents, a “normal” family and a “normal” society does not play around with a needle, a razor blade or a knife.
Because among us, deep in the “slums” of “underdevelopment”, there is always a certain humanity which even aspires to integrity. Because among us, the “poor”, there is always an inexhaustible socio-cultural, spiritual and traditional wealth which imposes respect for Man and life. And this glimmer of hope from our huts is more reassuring than the dazzling spotlights of the skyscrapers of moral decay.
Clement ZONGO
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