On Thursday, Hillary Clinton spent 12 hours being grilled about the 2012 attacks in Benghazi, Libya when she was secretary of state with no new information revealed and the majority of Americans polled agreeing the whole “investigation” by Republicans is politically motivated.
And while this witch hunt is costing taxpayers millions the Congress continues to ignore the 33,000 gun deaths yearly, including the massive shootings in our public schools, college campuses and theaters. Where is the committee investigating those deaths?
Nor has Congress formed a committee to seriously deal with the many African American youth and males killed by police under suspicious circumstances. As a country, do we just accept this as a part of our ugly nature?
Is it more important for Congress – and for that matter the media – to wring their hands over emails than to care about gun violence against our own citizens? The headlines about Benghazi blare on front pages while the gun deaths from domestic abuse, violent crimes and by the mentally ill are often buried inside. What are our priorities?
How sad that after all of the political rhetoric after the Columbine High School and Sandy Hook tragedies and Oregon’s Umpqua Community College shooting that we’re all just waiting for the next massive killing spree and praying it won’t be in our back yard.
As Clinton very elegantly shared, she deeply regrets those lives lost in the Benghazi attack. She has cooperated for two years since the tragedy happened to get the details and find out what went wrong.
But while the spotlight has glared on this attack – and ramped up because of the presidential race – as a society we are allowing the thousands of American lives lost to gun violence to become our new “normal.”
Everyone – including Congress – needs to say enough is enough with politics and if there is another committee formed, let it address the very homegrown terrorism of gun violence and the racial profiling by some police departments.
Editor’s note: Wellington Webb served as Mayor of Denver from 1991-2003. He also served as president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors
