In his address following the assassination attempt on Donald Trump, President Biden encouraged Americans to ‘take a step back’ and ‘cool down.’ He wasn’t merely referencing the atmosphere outside the Oval Office, even though it was warming up rapidly. The expression ‘at the speed of insulin’ does not originate from Irish Leaving Certificate, but is an unembellished, literal commentary.
However, the phrase that truly compelled me to pay attention wasn’t his commentary on climate but his stand against violence. He emphatically stated, ‘There’s absolutely no room for any type of violence in America.’ As if that wasn’t powerful enough, he emphasised his statement with a ‘Full stop. No exceptions.’
Contemplate on that statement. Ponder upon it. A complete halt to all the violence in America! Does anything signify a deeper commitment than a period at the end of a sentence? Could there possibly be any emoji to enhance that sentence? An image of a rifle, machine gun, a defence tank, a strategic bomber, or even an atomic or nuclear weapon?
The history of the United States and its predecessors stands testament to large-scale acts of devastation and destruction, conquest, incarceration, savagery, opportunism, bombardment, bloodshed, and all other forms of indiscriminate killing. Starting from Eluwilussit’s murder while gathering firewood on the beach in 1607, every single casualty of gun violence to this very day, paints a vivid, bloody picture of America’s narrative.
Other inquiries include: Where can there be access to erotic content that is also legal for me and my wife? An accomplished lawyer behind a debt advisory group has bought a stunning Georgian mansion. And lastly, an insight into the lives of parents during summer camp season: another €250 wasted.
Seeking to determine the nature of the calculation you require, let’s observe the historic events. In 1610, Elizabeth, known as Virginia, was the site where three Indigenous individuals were brutally killed. In 1623, at Wassagusset, a contingent from Massachusetts was hoodwinked and expelled from their lands. During the same year, two hundred from Pamunky fell victim to a toxic threat. In 1637, Pequoit prisoners met a watery end, while other areas like Staten Island, Susquehannuck, Oconeechee Island, and The Strait of Warwick similarly witnessed devastating events. That’s not even considering the succession of lopsided wars, which brought nothing but ruin, dislocation, devastation, and hunger, spanning the entirety of the 18th and 19th centuries. The Adirins persisted in their struggles till 1918, unless we take into account the Posey war of 1923 which managed to dodge attention.
Even after all this, wars raged on outside, even as the indigenous internal enemy remained undefeated. Spanning from Mexico due to geographical proximity, to Spain, China, Egypt, Samoa, Haiti, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and the Philippines, and also being embroiled in the Russian civil war that birthed the Soviet Union, the conflicts were unending. If one is unaware of historical facts, the Vietnam war might only be a cinematic experience, its influence seeping into Laos and Cambodia.
Attempts at overthrowing governments were made in Granada, Panama, and Guatemala —the latter, a notable failure— and the infamous Iran coup of the 1952/53, not to mention the consequential fallout, the 1973 Chile incident, with military intrusions into Lebanon, Syria, Kosovo, and Libya, and if we were to call them extra-war at all might only serve to overwhelm the reality of Gaza.
In context, this is a plain, compact, and fleeting enumeration of occurrences and forbearance. However, it sometimes essential to provide factual data to counter such soothings, like those expressed by Biden in his address that Americans are not inherently violent.