Wednesday open thread: Mr. McConaughey goes to Washington

What seems like an eternity ago, actor Matthew McConaughey made noises about running for governor of Texas. After just having endured four years of a "celebrity" presidency, needless to say many gave this project the side-eye. Eventually, McConaughey realized that discretion was the better part of valor, and ended his explorations.

Then Uvalde happened.

McConaughey is a native son of that grieving town. These are his people. He has never left them. And this tragedy is what's given him a voice. His putative run for governor was hard to see as anything but an attention grab. But his words since the deadly domestic terrorist act have been the words that the great American Middle needed to hear. He was no loony leftist. He is a born-and-bred Texan, still lives there, and is a gun-owner. Yes, of course, he will still be tarred with "Hollywood actor". But that's only because of his A-list status. I didn't see cries of indignation when Trump-fan Jon Voigt also called for gun law reform after Uvalde.

Yesterday, McConaughey appeared at the dais in the White House briefing room to talk about what needs to be done with regards to guns. Have a listen:

I must admit. I've been emotional for a while now. The world is too much with me. So I get choked up rather easily. But this appearance broke me. It's a man weary of the dysfunction which seemingly consigns our children to death. The dysfunction which condemns all of us to wonder if this trip to the grocery store, or this Sunday in church will be our day, the day that someone who should not own a gun, much less a weapon of war, ends our lives. The idea that we have to accept the risk of murder for "freedom" is so asinine that it doesn't merit debate. 

How many more must be fed to Moloch's acolytes in the NRA? How many more families must be shattered? How many more lives must end? How many more people must suffer a lifetime of trauma, so that they're never the same people again? How much is enough?

Compassion. Empathy. Humanity. Have too many of our fellow citizens forgotten those concepts? I think of the clip I saw over the weekend where a grieving grandfather in Uvalde was excoriating the police, and a random white man sidled up and told him to stop living in the past. What disregard. What selfishness. What evil.

The fight we're in is not a political fight. It's not about differing ways to get to a common goal. It is a struggle which most of the world's wisdom traditions posit. It is a fight between good and evil, between humanity and inhumanity. I can't fathom those who choose the side of inhumanity. Do they not have family? Do they not have people they love? If so, do they consider their lives to be so expendable, so easily frittered away? Again, I find it impossible to fathom.

Thank you, Matthew. In this appearance, you've done the work of the blessed tzaddiks. May more of your fellow citizens heed your words.

This is your open thread.