WITH A HEAVY HEART

I have hesitated to say anything about the Newtown massacre because the reality trivializes commentary.  The refusal of Obama to throw all of his considerable power behind a push for significant gun control is shameful.  I fully understand that such an effort, quite possibly doomed to failure, might cost scarce political capital that is needed for large scale and far reaching efforts to address America’s economic inequality and budgetary problems, and I can easily imagine that a careful utilitarian calculation might yield the conclusion that more good is to be achieved by once again taking a pass on gun control.  But at some point, honor takes precedence over even the best intentioned calculation.  The young John Kerry achieved instant fame by asking a Congressional committee, “What do you say to the last soldier to die in Viet Nam?”  Can Barack Obama  look into the faces of those dead children and say, “I needed for you to die so that I could raise taxes on the rich?”  As for the Republicans, they are unspeakable, and worthy only of contempt, not conversation.