But after seeing him on national television I have to say that he almost reduced me to tears.
So just who is Steve Kerr? Steve is head coach of the Golden State Warriors basketball team which plays in the NBA (National Basketball Association) in America. Basketball has never appealed to me much, although I did enjoy playing it at school until everyone grew over 6ft and I stayed at 5ft 5in.
But Steve Kerr's comments were nothing to do with the sport. He was talking about the latest in a long line of school shootings in the USA that this time left 19 children and two adults dead. Steve had no regrets about being openly emotional, angry and frustrated accusing many politicians of putting their own wishes and egos ahead of the safety of the country's children. Almost in tears, he banged on the table in front of him "when are we going to do something" was his impassioned plea.
This is the text of what he had to say:
"When are we going to do something? I am tired. I am so tired of getting up here and offering condolences to the devastated families out there. I'm tired of the moments of silence. Enough. So I ask you, Mitch McConnell and all of you senators who refuse to do anything about the violence and the school shootings and the supermarkets shootings -- I ask you, are you going to put your own desire for power ahead of the lives of our children and our elderly and our church-goers? Because that's what it looks like. That's what we do every week. I'm fed up. I've had enough. We can't get numb to this. We can't sit here and just read about it and say let's have a moment of silence."
OK you might say, Kerr is just a sports coach who should keep out of politics. But that isn't true. Kerr is a man who cares about children being murdered. He cares about having gun laws that should prevent maniacs getting hold of firearms and he is high profile enough to be given airtime on national networks. Kerr speaks for every parent that has had a child killed, for every husband, every brother, every wife, every sister, every father and every mother who have had their lives ripped apart by the insanity that seems to overtake America regularly.
I love the USA and have travelled extensively over there and we will shortly be hosting American friendsme but the country scares . I will be trying to show our guests that we have a much more peaceful society where gun crime is at a minimum.
But let's get back to Steve Kerr. What also gives him the right to explode publicly on these matters is that his father was shot and killed in 1984 at the American University of Beirut. CNN the media network made the following comment:
"Sometimes it takes someone not in politics to point out the insanity that dominates our current political moment."
That to me is summing up the situation in a nutshell.
I found myself shouting at the television this morning when American networks gave airtime to a woman from the gun lobby pointing out that not only does the American Constitution give citizens the right to own and carry firearms but that it isn't the guns that kill but people.
Actually it's the people behind the guns which is pretty much the same thing as saying yes it is guns that kill. To put it simplistically bullets come out of guns and bullets kill.
I have no confidence that anything will be done to change gun laws in the USA despite impassioned pleas from men like Steve Kerr and also President Biden. I also have no doubt that the country will suffer many more gun related killings which will happen time after time after time and in the words of Steve Kerr "we will hold a minute's silence and then move on as if nothing has happened."
I have thought long and hard before putting my thoughts down in this blog as I have many friends and relatives in the USA and may upset them with my anti gun stance. But I just thank God (or whoever else you might worship) that British people do not as a matter of course keep guns and firearms. So I apologies if I have upset anyone with my views but, unless something is done about this, hundreds more children will lose their lives.
It does equally frighten me that the gun lobbyists believe that arming teachers is the answer. Can you imagine a class full of children where the teacher has a gun in his or her desk? Can you imagine the mayhem that could be caused by a shoot out between teachers and lunatic gunmen? It would make the gunfight at the OK Corral look like a barbecue party in comparison.
* * *
It's also rather poignant for me in light of the comments above that today we set out on a short visit to the site of a Second World War massacre at Le Paradis in Northern France. That's when 97 British soldiers were murdered by the SS. I have mentioned this on numerous occasions.
I will be sending a piece with photographs back for our local newspapers from the memorial/commemoration event which is due to take place tomorrow.
Staying on a similar theme, my friend and South Norfolk Councillor Phil Hardy is writing a series of articles for Hethersett Herald on the Assassination of John F. Kennedy. Phil is extremely learned on this subject and his intricate articles certainly shed some light on theories that Lee Harvey Oswald was not acting alone and may just have been what is referred to as a patsy for something much more sinister. I know Phil is hoping to turn his work into a book on the subject.
Even if you have no interest in our village, it will be worth you seeking out these articles. Another friend John Head also writes regularly for the publication on Irish history, which all gives a kind of gravitas to a publication that is mainly but not exclusively about our village.
* * *
On a lighter note, I wandered down to the village sign yesterday early morning to meet up with two of the school heads in our village. It was to take some photographs for an article on the coming scarecrow trail which will run for a week from Saturday.
At the moment, 28 scarecrows will be placed all over the village and the sale of trail maps will raise money for the village's two primary schools which are working together on this event. I was chuffed to meet the acquaintance of Jake - one of the scarecrows. He looked a friendly old soul, even if he did have a lot of straw poking out.
As this has been a rather serious blog, I don't feel it appropriate to publish a lighter and more fun photograph of the scarecrow, so I will leave that for tomorrow's blog.
I will leave you with a list of three things that nobody really seems to be doing anything about:
1/ Vladimir Putin
2/ Restricting the use of Firearms in the USA
3/ Boris Johnson.
See you tomorrow.