Dear Us,
Events happen and the entire world erupts in a very scripted few moments of “thoughts, prayers, well wishes” for a second…
Two…
Three…
And then people begin to mold the moments that happened toward their particular point of view.
Students shot in a high school.
Thoughts, prayers, well wishes
Two…
Three…
OMG GUNS SHOULDN’T EXIST THE SECOND AMENDMENT WAS WRITTEN THAT PEOPLE SHOULDN’T HAVE THEIR ARMS REMOVED FROM THEIR BODIES NOT ABOUT GUNS YOU BUNCH OF TREE SWINGING NAZIS WHO ALL SMELL LIKE HITLER
or
SEE GUN FREE ZONES ARE JUST AREAS WHERE WE ARE SETTING PEOPLE UP TO BE SHOT GUNS SHOULD BE ISSUED WITH TEXT BOOKS YOU BUNCH OF NAMBY PAMBY WALKING TRIGGER WARNINGS
and on
and on
and on
There’s a dis ingenuity that follows so much of what people say as they look on in horror because they must react to an awful moment. They must ready themselves to master it. Lest it master them and fear overtake them.
People want to make evil illegal without realizing it is. We hate to hurt. We are stricken by the horror of such brutality.
And this isn’t the reason I’m writing this, but let’s face it. We see such inhumane barbarism within another human being and a small part of us winces in abject pain. We can’t handle to look on. There’s no difference at the level of origins or cellular structure between an Isis barbarian and me. Why am I not a murderous fiend? How do I stop myself from becoming so? I know. I’ll make a law…
Anyway, soon after the scene unfolded in Paris where it was more than mere violence. It was orchestrated evil. Murder, cold and patient. My skin crawled. And a part of me became extraordinarily sad for the people of France. I’m still trying to diagnose why. There are people who die devastating violent and natural deaths in greater numbers far more often than this. There’s just something to an attack on a people who have fought their sanity and dignity to create a governing coalition to create security and freedom. They come to expect civility from one another and assume the rest of the world falls in line with the idea that life has dignity.
The next day, I opened up my facebook app and friends were changing their profile pictures to be backdrops of the French tricolors. And I tapped it. My heart still hurt for what they just experienced. I did a decent job of avoiding punditry for the rest of the weekend and even today. I don’t want to know what these talk jockeys think about this. I like some of these guys, mind you. Some of them have even been instrumental in me learning how to disagree with them. I just don’t want to listen to a calloused treatment of someone’s tragedy.
160 someone’s tragedies.
Plus the family and friends connected to them.
Plus the systems of existence connected to all of those people.
The ripples of misery spread out from the heart of France and we mourn.
Avoid the pundits, though I may, I haven’t been able to avoid the smug trolls who create their own atmospheric disturbance by clouding the air with self righteousness and high horseties.
“Why I’m not putting the french flag on my facebook”
“Why you shouldn’t put the flag on facebook”
“Why the french are dumb”
Ok, I read that last one and it was funny a week ago. But the callouses of our hearts have to come off.
Most of the why nots are all centered around something I have decried myself
Facebooktivism
We endure a cause for a moment for the return to normal feeling and then abandon it. It’s a thing. It’s real. And I’ve done it. It should never be the sole reaction your world has to a bad moment. IF you’re american, write your congressman. Do it a lot. They love it. Heh.
Occupy your conversation with the topic and become educated on the matter. Involve others. The more you do, the more you learn, the more you talk, the more you educate, the more you annoy your elected people,
The more you send ripples back to the people there.
I stand for the people of France and I say again in the dawn of the new week following great tragedy there will be heroes and villains. Some will dress as the other. You will know them by how they seek to respond. Those who are swift to see Justice are the heroes of whom the world is not worthy. Those who violently pursue vengeance are just someone else’s villain, soon to create a cause for their enemy to hide behind and mask the evil that was done this weekend.
Viva La France
Two…
Three…
Love,
Them
Love, Them 