An open letter to David Hogg

Hello David,

My name is John.

The only thing about me that’s important for you to know other than my name is that I’m old enough to be your father, and I am writing this with the best of intentions.

I’d like to help you if possible, not hurt you. I truly have your best interests at heart, whether you choose to believe it or not. So I’m going to speak to you as your father should be doing, and as if I were speaking to my own son–who is actually ten years older than you.

I’m offering you the same advice I would give Matthew, if he were in the same situation as you at this moment: please, for the love of God, stop talking. Why in the hell your own parents haven’t already had this conversation with you is another topic and possibly beyond my comprehension. But Hillary Clinton once claimed that it takes a village to raise a child, so for once in my life, I’m going to pretend she actually knew what she was talking about, and assume that writing this letter is a good idea.

In my opinion, you must learn to choose your words very carefully, before you speak. Why? Because people are currently listening to you. You’ve got just about everyone’s attention. That can work against you. This cliche that sounds like an ominous warning is actually a truth I learned as a child–be careful what you wish for, because you just might get it.

If you wanted to be famous, consider that goal achieved.

You have gone through a very stressful and traumatic experience, one about which I can empathize, at least to some degree. When I was about your age, I got into a heated argument with an older, very drunk person. Our disagreement resulted with the barrel of a .357 Magnum revolver loaded, with hollow point bullets (I could easily see them loaded in the cylinders from my vantage point) resting on the bridge of my nose while a person obviously suffering from temporary insanity threatened to pull the trigger,  I realized that the abrupt end of my life was only the twitch of a finger away, while I stared into the eyes of a person who was completely out of control at that moment. In retrospect, I can’t even give a good explanation as to why I’m not dead.

Statistically speaking, I can’t imagine very many people survive that particular situation, but honestly, I’ve never really given it that much thought until now. As I’m sure you can understand, it was a very traumatic experience for me that to some degree still affects me to this day, almost forty years after it happened. So I can understand how believing you are facing imminent death can be a life-changing experience, because it certainly changed mine.

Even so, it honestly never occurred to me to blame the gun for what happened, because the it didn’t want to kill me. The person holding it probably did, but that’s beside the point because this letter isn’t about me; it’s about you.

So let’s stick to the subject, shall we? As I said earlier, I’m approaching this letter the exact same way I would approach having this conversation with my own son…his attention span becomes short when “conversation” becomes a lecture, so before you can start rolling your eyes, let me get straight to the point. I know you’ve given interviews with Bill Maher, Dan Rather, and other more celebrated pundits, but the interview below is the one I’d like to address.

Okay, so here are a few quick points I sincerely believe that you need to take into consideration before giving your next interview:

Point #1: Learn to show respect for your elders.

It’s probably considered old-fashioned to quote the Bible and point out that one of the Ten Commandments is to honor your father and mother, but there are reasons that people still read the Bible–there are actually many words of wisdom found in that remarkable anthology of books. The fourth commandment is to honor your father and mother. Profanity-laced tirades don’t bring them honor, in the eyes of most people.

Personally, what is often called “adult” language doesn’t necessarily offend me. Nor does it impress me. Any idiot can use profanity or obscenities. It indicates one of two things about the person who felt the need to resort to foul language to make their point–they are experiencing apoplectic rage about what they know or believe to be a grave  injustice, or they lack the intellect and ability to communicate their thoughts in a more rational manner. The first application is somewhat defensible, but the latter shows a lack of imagination. The “f-bombs” don’t bother me nearly as much as the rest of the rest of what you were saying, David.

In one sweeping generalization, you suggested that people my age don’t know how to use smart phones and computers. With a very condescending attitude you suggested that people like me are technologically illiterate, which forces me to remind you that my generation built these devices for you, and even we were only able to do that by standing on the shoulders of the giants who preceded our generation. When I was in college, the personal computer didn’t exist. We used mainframes and wrote programs using punch cards, which you may not even be aware once existed. Your generation wouldn’t be able to use an ATM if I hadn’t been working on a rather large team of software developers who produced the first working PINPads and magnetic card readers. Your smart card chip would be a useless piece of equipment if my team and I hadn’t developed both the software embedded in the device itself as well as the application that communicated with it. If you have ever seen a manual cash register, a manual typewriter, or a punch card reader, it was probably in a museum.

People like me made those machines archaic, and put them in the museum to remind ourselves of the past, and the problems we had to solve for this modern world to exist.

A little appreciation might be in order, don’t you think? For the record, our Founding Fathers weren’t clueless imbeciles by any stretch of the imagination, even a limited one.

Point #2: Know the facts. And know your audience.

Nothing can be more embarrassing than to make an obvious mistake in front of a knowledgeable audience, because your critics will gleefully beat you over the head with even the smallest of mistakes you make, no matter your true intent.

From the video above, I’ll only mention the one that immediately struck me as particularly egregious– you said that my generation doesn’t even know how to properly use a democratic form of government. There is a very good reason for that–we don’t have one. The United States government is defined as a Constitutional republic, not a democracy. If the U.S. did have a true democracy, Hillary Clinton would be President, because she got more total votes than Donald Trump. Because we have a Constitutional republic, which utilizes the electoral college, and elected representation versus mob rule, with even a basic knowledge of civics (no longer taught in high school)  your comment becomes indefensible. I don’t blame you as much as the education system for your ignorance, but that won’t necessarily alleviate your embarrassment.

Trust me, I’m far more critical of the imbecile reporters sticking microphones in your face at every opportunity so that you can’t have even one private moment to gather your thoughts. But you do need to know that people like the two reporters who set you up to create the image of a spoiled brat with obvious leading questions are not doing you any favors.

One of these days, I’m afraid some of the things you’ve been manipulated into saying by the media are going to come back to haunt you. Not them. I’m both appalled and concerned about the vitriol that I’ve been seeing on the internet coming from members of my generation who only seem to be hearing what you say, and not noticing how the media have been trying to influence what you say.

You need to understand that my Jewish friends are upset that the “Never Again” slogan originally used in context with the Holocaust and the motto of the Jewish Defense League was misappropriated, and when you combine that with the Hitlerian imagery that you have accidentally (I presume) created with gestures and off the cuff remarks, it isn’t helping. Trust me. This isn’t an image you want to cultivate. No sane and rational person wants to be compared to Hitler.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRi-UouACL8&bpctr=1522233892

Take a deep breath, maybe even a long, cold shower, and then watch your interview video to see yourself in action for those nine minutes, one more time. If you’re still comfortable with the image you’re projecting into the camera, perhaps you should just stop reading now, because you’re beyond hope if you like where this is heading.

Point #3: Be rational. Not emotional.

Assuming you hope to actually persuade the people who support gun ownership and disagree with your political “solution” to change their mind, your tactics need improvement. If your goal is to antagonize the people with whom you currently disagree, you’re doing a fine job, and no immediate changes are necessary. However, you should know that you’re wasting your time, if you only plan to lecture people and have no intention of persuading them.

David, Rush Limbaugh has mentioned you on his program. In the past couple of weeks, you’ve become more famous than most people could ever hope to be…at the moment, people care even more about what you might say than Kendall Jenner (though why people might care about what Kendall Jenner has to say is also a mystery to me.)

So has Sean Hannity, and just about every other conservative pundit. While they haven’t been as harsh with their criticisms as you might expect, though they certainly weren’t fawning over you like Bill Maher or Dan Rather. Bill and Dan haven’t suddenly become interested in your opinions, either. You’re simply trying to make their argument valid.

Attention isn’t necessarily a good thing. Case in point:

This has been floating around on Facebook, mostly because old people like me who allegedly don’t even know how to send an iMessage found it funny. Mea culpa.

I can tell by the word count if I haven’t lost you already, it’s only a matter of time. So let me summarize my reason for writing you this open letter with the hope it will eventually come to your attention. There’s more I’d like to say and questions I’d like to ask, but a key part of the art of communication is knowing when to stop talking.

In summary, you only need to know one more thing about me: As a father and grandfather, I’ve never really wanted to own a gun. Consequently, I’ve never felt the need to join the NRA. So I’ve never been a member. Never felt the need. Until now.

I’ve decided to gift myself with a lifetime membership in the NRA, as my next birthday present. I might even buy a gun.  And it’s all because of you, and your friends currently emoting at the top of your lungs. The world hears you, all right.

But also know this: your feelings are not more important than my freedom.

Sincerely,

John