i've been very saddened today from the news of sean taylor's tragic homicide. i think some people may think i am overreacting. after all, sean taylor isn't someone i knew personally. he was just a football player. but, just as they said on tonight's sportscenter, the importance of the washington redskins to dc and its surrounding suburbs cannot be understated. and i can say firsthand that that is absolutely true.
i was at the last game sean taylor ever got to play. i'm glad that it was at home at fedex field. and i hope whoever brought what could have been a long, much more productive and extremely successful life to an end is eventually brought to justice.
more than anything, though, i hope sean taylor's death does not pass us in vain. i hope it serves as a wakeup call in how we look at violence and guns. jemele hill does a good job delineating her outrage in an espn article. but while she is justifiably outraged about race and violence, i wonder, when are we going to get serious about gun control in this country?
i understand that the gun lobby is a formidable force in this country. and i also understand that our founding fathers wanted americans to have the right to protect themselves. but while "A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed," i believe that we must ask ourselves, when are we fighting oppression, and when are we gunning down 24-year-old men in their sleep? when will we institute real reforms, which can be enforced state to state, in a singular, reliable fashion so that people don't fall through the cracks? and when are we finally going to say, no hunter or law-abiding person need own certain classifications of weapons?
i don't know what the answers to any of these questions are. but i hope that as they heal, sean taylor's family, and especially his father, a former chief of police, can become advocates for real change.
sean taylor, rest in peace.
