Supposedly either George Washington or Tocqueville dubbed America "The Great Experiment" in terms of its democratic political system. Now 243 years after indigenous lands were violently stolen to create this country, we can see that "The Great Experiment" was flawed.
The scientific method dictates the 6 proper steps for any experiment:
1. Formulate your question
2. Do research
3. Create a hypothesis (prediction of what will happen)
4. Test that hypothesis
5. Analyze your data
6. Share your results.
Our founding fathers were great at formulating a question about whether and how they could create a new nation. They even wrote things down in the great brainstorms we call the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.
But then they skipped all the middle steps and just began sharing their results ("Hey England and everyone else! We have a new nation over here! Huzzah!")
They believed that it was God's will and their right to push ever westward, from England across the sea to North America and then onward until they reached the Pacific and anyone who stood in their way was met with deadly force.
I admit this is simplistic.
But when I look at this epidemic of angry, hate-filled white men, armed to the teeth and leaping into public spaces to kill and injure anyone who fits the bill of "other", it feels to me connected to the same mindset that the group of wealthy, educated white men that we call our founding fathers had when they turned their eyes ever westward.
They believed they had the RIGHT to kill, maim and destroy in the name of what they saw as just and destined. And they saw the OTHERS--the indigenous people and slaves--as less than human, as property to be used or destroyed as they saw fit.
Which leads me to wandering the dark paths in my mind, questioning whether our founding fathers were far more akin to our current administration than they were to the gallant, flawless heroes about whom I was taught in school.
It's a matter of perspective after all--one person's criminality is another person's passionate quest to follow the dictates of their beliefs.
Those who share the beliefs of these mass shooters shrug and turn away with a "that's too bad" because to vilify the shooters is to put themselves under the microscope.
And so 243 years later we find we, as a nation, haven't grown all that much.
These mass shootings are our mirror and we must look into it and acknowledge that this is one experiment that needs to be re-examined or else dismissed .
Now I again wrestle with my heart ache and tears and fall into this now familiar pit of uselessness at my inability to affect any kind of meaningful change after yet another mass shooting in Ohio.
But I will add this: that line about "The Great Experiment"? There's no proof that either George Washington or Tocqueville ever said it.
Like so much else surrounding what people think this country is vs what it actually is, it seems to be a myth.
