We're Complicit: Michigan State University.

Essays | Frank Yang | February 14th, 2023.

I’m sitting in bed, sick at 12 am. I’m coughing phlegm, drinking water, hearing my own heartbeat – and I’m listening to live radio dispatch reports from East Lansing, Michigan. It’s another mass shooting, a school shooting at Michigan State University.

I’m sick of charts that look like this. I’m sick of maps that look like this. I’m sick of articles that look like this.

Every morning at school, I have to pledge my allegiance to the flag. The flag, 13 stripes and 50 stars, always waving at half mast. Because these mass shootings are almost daily. And today is yet another entry onto that list.

I hate reciting the pledge. It makes me sound like I endorse the fact that after every mass shooting, gun laws in many states get looser. It makes me a representative of the people actively wanting to commit murder and hate crimes. It makes me feel terrible that at the same time my biggest problem is trying to swallow medicine, there are students dying from the hands of an active shooter.

Elected representatives call me a coward. They say I’m foolish for thinking gun control does anything. I guess doing nothing, letting thousands of people die every year, is the better alternative. Or maybe, we could do like the state of Florida, who has proposed looser gun control legislation.

We are spitting in the faces of victims. Las Vegas, Pulse, Virginia Tech, Sandy Hook, Uvalde, the list has not stopped growing. But we refuse to take action.

How complicit will we remain? How long will we let these representatives who don’t act in favor of American lives remain in power? The status quo has shown our inaction and at this rate, the future will look at us like we endorse these tragedies. 

I refuse to let that happen. Thoughts and prayers aren’t enough for Michigan State University. Where was the good guy with a gun? Was it another instance of "mental instability?" I don't know. But what I do know is that we need to stop obfuscating the facts: 3 students died because of easy gun access. 

Tuesday, November 5, 2024 is the next election cycle. And I want to see you there. I want to see everyone there. Because the power is in our hands, and I know you want change.