Ring Them Bells

Slicer recently joined others in calling for US guns to be put in the ground (- at least privately owned high powered assault rifles, and the fetishism that goes with them). He understands gun control is not the only answer, but cringes at the lame mantra "guns don't kill people; people kill people." The first funerals of child victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre have taken place, and their tiny bodies have been put in the ground. 

It is poignant that, at a time of year normally associated with children's laughter and sleigh bells, another type of bell is brought to mind.

 

Ring them bells, ye heathen
From the city that dreams
Ring them bells from the sanctuaries
’Cross the valleys and streams
For they’re deep and they’re wide
And the world’s on its side
And time is running backwards
And so is the bride

Ring them bells St. Peter
Where the four winds blow
Ring them bells with an iron hand
So the people will know
Oh it’s rush hour now
On the wheel and the plow
And the sun is going down
Upon the sacred cow

Ring them bells Sweet Martha
For the poor man’s son
Ring them bells so the world will know
That God is one
Oh the shepherd is asleep
Where the willows weep
And the mountains are filled
With lost sheep

Ring them bells for the blind and the deaf
Ring them bells for all of us who are left
Ring them bells for the chosen few
Who will judge the many when the game is through
Ring them bells, for the time that flies
For the child that cries
When innocence dies

Ring them bells St. Catherine
From the top of the room
Ring them from the fortress
For the lilies that bloom
Oh the lines are long
And the fighting is strong
And they’re breaking down the distance
Between right and wrong

Private gun ownership has become a sacred cow that dare not be challenged. It's worshipped on the altar of "freedom" and shared at the communion table of "rights." It's turned into a black mass. Slicer says it's time to slice up the cow; time to assess what harm some freedoms carry. Freedom is not absolute - it's married closely to Responsibility. Time to grow up, America. Ring them bells for all of us who are left, and particularly for the children you have left.

And a few lines from another song - one written 40 years ago this year, but no less relevant today (whether it's war, phone hacking, or...):

 

You are far across the ocean
in a war that's not your own
and while you’re winning theirs
you’re gonna lose the one at home
do you really think the only way
to bring about the peace
is to sacrifice your children
and kill all your enemies?

"Oh the shepherd is asleep...."
Wake up, O sleeper!