The Tribune

With CHARLIE HARPER

IS horrific gun violence in the US even newsworthy anymore? One can reasonably wonder what will be required for American legislators to enact meaningful gun control laws.

Last week, an 18-year-old managed to enter an elementary school in the town of Uvalde, Texas, a town of some 15,000 located in the hill country along highway 90, midway between San Antonio and the Rio Grande border town of Del Rio. The gunman proceeded to murder 19 children and two adults. The pathos of the scene was overwhelming. Local police and security officials responded in a grossly inadequate and possibly cowardly fashion and are being justifiably pilloried.

The outcry was so great that wheelchair-bound but statesmanlike-looking Texas governor Greg Abbott cancelled a personal appearance at the National Rifle Association’s annual meeting in Houston to return to Uvalde to explain the misstatements he had made on the facts of the case in an earlier press conference.

It was a bad day for the gun lobby. It was a bad day for the NRA, whose influence has ebbed in recent years under the accumulating weight of astounding incompetence and outright corruption in its internal management. It was a bad day for Abbott, a retrograde reactionary whose policies typify the calcification in America’s second most populous state. As governor, he ultimately bears responsibility for the law enforcement failures so vividly on display at Uvalde. Abbott is up for re-election this fall, opposed by one-time El Paso congressman and liberal media darling Beto O’Rourke.

Meantime, in Washington, some senate Democrats made hopeful noises about assault weapons bans, raising age limits for firearms purchases and other measures that seem to command overwhelming public support everywhere except in the US Senate, where the so far unattainable total of 60 votes is needed for passage. The Republican congressman who represents the inner-city Buffalo area where a supermarket shooting horrified the nation two weeks ago, declared he would now support some gun control measures. Perhaps he will. He too is up for re-election in November.

According to a website archive that tracks shootings in the United States, there were at least 14 “mass shootings” in the country over the recent Memorial Day weekend, from early Saturday to late Monday. The archive defines a mass shooting as an incident in which “four or more people are shot or killed, not including the shooter.” At least nine people were killed in the shootings, with more than 60 injured. Business as usual?

In Chattanooga, Tennessee, mayor Tim Kelly publicly lost his composure after a group of kids started shooting at each other recently. “I am very angry,” he told reporters. “Six teenagers were shot last night in what we believe was an altercation between other teenagers. And once again, I’m standing here in front of you talking about our community’s youth getting shot. That’s outrageous and it has to stop. It’s ridiculous that I even need to publicly state that guns have no place in the hands of our kids.”

The current dreadful cycle of gun violence inflicted on kids and adults by kids and adults began with the shootings and murder of 13 people at Columbine High School in Colorado 23 years ago. Etched in our memories are mass murders at Sandy Hook elementary school in Connecticut in 2012, Marjorie Stoneham Douglas high school near Orlando in 2018 and now the Uvalde tragedy. Enough, already.

FORGET COVID, ALL EYES ON MONKEYPOX

JUST when we might be finally seeing some real light at the end of the long tunnel of COVID-19, here comes monkeypox.

Between May 13 and 24, at least 16 countries in Europe and North America including the US and UK, as well as Australia and Israel, reported monkeypox cases.

National Geographic magazine’s website quotes British health official Andrea McCollum on raising the alarm at the new outbreak: “We’ve never really seen this type of spread from monkeypox before,” she said, “so this is particularly concerning.”

Normally prevalent in West Africa, monkeypox triggers flu-like symptoms followed by a rash on the face which can spread to other parts of the body. These symptoms generally disappear within a few weeks, but can occasionally be fatal. The smallpox virus, which was eradicated in 1979 and is a close relative of monkeypox, was much deadlier, killing 30 percent of those infected.

One big reason for escalating monkeypox cases is actually the elimination of smallpox. But researchers have shown that the discontinued smallpox vaccine is actually very effective against monkeypox.

“Monkeypox is very different from COVID,” said Maria Van Kerkhove, an infectious disease epidemiologist at the World Health Organization. “Transmission is really happening from close physical contact, skin-to-skin contact.” Monkeypox, unlike COVID-19 which circulates via tiny air-borne droplets, doesn’t spread as easily.

Given the nature of the current outbreak, epidemiologists and virologists are trying to understand if there’s enhanced person-to-person transmission of this virus. They’re also reportedly trying to determine whether the monkeypox virus is a sexually transmitted disease.

So far, it seems clear that monkeypox isn’t likely to become the worldwide scourge that COVID has been. Still, it’s a cause for concern. At least we can be reassured international health authorities seem to be on top of the situation, and no one is denying its potential dangers.

TEARS AND TRIUMPH

THE tradition-rich historic champion franchises Boston Celtics in basketball and Real Madrid in soccer both added to their glittering records over the weekend. In the process, they broke hearts all over England and South Florida.

If you were watching the tense decisive seventh game of the NBA’s Eastern Conference play-off final between the Celtics and the Heat on Sunday evening, didn’t you wonder if Miami’s Jimmy Butler would somehow manage to win the game for the injury-riddled local favourites? In nearly wiping out a 13-point deficit with less than four minutes remaining, the Heat reeled off 11 straight points as Boston collapsed in disarray. Then Butler drove down and took an open three-point shot that hit the front rim and bounced away. End of the line for the Heat. Now the Celtics face Golden State in the finals. The Warriors will be appropriately and heavily favoured.

The biggest, match in worldwide soccer so far this year was played on Saturday. The final of soccer’s most glamorous and consequential club competition was moved from St Petersburg to the Paris suburb of St Denis by soccer’s governing body as a response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Liverpool and 13-time champions Real Madrid were the contestants in this European Champions League final, and Madrid won 1-0. Critics of soccer often grouse that there isn’t enough scoring, so perhaps such a low score line might signify a boring contest.

Not this time. The Reds from northwest England applied their customary full-court press from the start. German manager Juergen Klopp employs a blitzkrieg attacking style with fleet, adroit forwards and perhaps the best tandem of attacking wingbacks in the game to create confusion and opportunities for scoring in front of the opponent’s beleaguered goal. That’s how this game unfolded, but Madrid’s Belgian goalie Thibault Courtois, a Premier League veteran, parried every Liverpool thrust and was the game’s MVP. An incisive counterattacking goal by Real’s newest Brazilian superstar Vinicius Jr. clinched the victory, which extended Real Madrid’s record-setting championship record in this top competition.

Liverpool had been tipped to win the “quadruple,” including the Champions League, Premier League and the two English club competitions. In the end, Manchester City edged out the Reds for the domestic league title and they won only the two lesser English club competitions. Now soccer is essentially off for ten weeks or so until everyone starts back up in August.

But very much like with American football, baseball and basketball, the off-season transfer season will occupy the summer months and fans’ interest. And the Premier League on Monday got another premium American club owner, as the sale of Chelsea was finally approved to a group headed by the part-owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers. This sale, for over $5 billion, was mandated by the British government due to the previous Russian owner’s ties to Vladimir Putin. So now Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea are American-owned among England’s “Top Six” clubs. And by the way, these same wealthy teams finished in the top six places in the season just concluded.