Two dead to care
I’M SO SORRY FOR YOUR LOSS. Words, hugs, flowers, hotdishes and sermons try to comfort, sympathize or take away some of the pain when there is no reason; when there is no comprehension of senseless death. When we are helpless to see it coming, helpless to stop the carnage and helpless to change the outcome of two lifeless bodies whose only sin was ... nothing.
I’M SO SORRY for your loss is a natural response for most who have a shred of humanity. For some, the words wrenches from the gut like random gunshots. For others, it is just a rehearsed response or a politician’s photo op. The question marks posed by lifeless bodies be they children, political figures or kids on the street have no answers and fade quickly except for those splattered with flesh or consumed by the grief of senseless murder and a hundred “What if’s” and “If only I had...”
I’M so sorry for your loss. Old people die. Others succumb from “accidents.” We accept this, but we demand a reason or motive for killing as if that resolves the unfathomable mystery, the discomfort, the lifelong nightmares. We want this quick fix. Sadly, we are tuned to accept violence and death by media, entertainment, sports, and war from the safe distance of our couch until the bullet comes through the window. Do we simply mumble ...
... I’m so sorry for your loss? Meaningless. Wake Up! Every 12 minutes a person dies by gun violence in the USA. Firearms are the leading cause of death for children and teens. Black children and teens are 18 times more likely to die by gun violence than white children. The phrase “Guns don’t kill people, people do” is the worst kind of lie hiding inside a partial truth. An AR-15 assault rifle fires 45 rounds per minute unless modified with a bump stock so it can fire up to 400 rounds per minute. People with guns can kill a lot of people.
The big response has been more guns for police, hardening the “targets,” (since when should children be depersonalized as targets?), increased surveillance, drills that in essence say hide, run or die bravely. These quick, flashy “fixes” still allow almost anyone to get an AR-15. This is a hunting weapon? What are we hunting? Is this the zombie apocalypse?
Sensible national gun registration and banning assault-style weapons for general public use is only a partial help. America has an accelerating issue of inequality and apparent memory loss that will take years and many wasted lives before it is not everyday news that 2 or 5 or 21 people are dead by the hand of a random, lost, angry person. Still, mass shootings are a small part of the picture.
Handguns kill most of the 47,000 plus individuals, and 58% are suicides.
When you see and hear the fake media reality of the good life and know that you have no way to grasp even a part of it and that all your efforts and dreams are twisted to benefit a very few people who see you as only a disposable commodity, frustration builds. When truth and facts disappear and religion is used to create hate and define you as less than human, the world fractures.
When you are powerless to help others who are beaten down and see criminals walk away and be celebrated, it creates a hopelessness that can end in the death of spirit and body.
There have been sightings of zombies in Washington but no current work on a vaccine designed to protect the hearts and minds of people from mindless greed and flesh rotting responses that accelerates the death toll with what the military would call “acceptable collateral damage,” meaning the targets didn’t hurt the cash flow with their blood flow.
Has murder become a spectator sport splashed on any of a number of true crime networks? If it makes money, can it be so bad?
This zombie prevention vaccine requires several simple but difficult components that America has the wealth and ideals to create. Economic equality. Rule of law. Respect for all including the earth. Without this vaccine, will other nations munch on cookies and divide up your belongings as they chuckle, “No Heart. No brain. No courage. SO SORRY FOR YOUR LOSS, Miss Liberty, but Amerika is in a much better place now?”
BILL RICHARDS WALNUT GROVE
