Monday, October 2, 2017

Don't even.

Apparently this is what we do now.

We wring our hands.
We send our thoughts and prayers.
We wonder what we've become.
We question - ad nauseum - 
the motivations and pathology of the shooter.
We watch as news crews revisit the scene of the crime
and show multiple angles of the carnage.

And then

we do nothing.

We blame whoever is 'the other' du jour -
Muslims, Mexicans, right wing, left wing, the mentally ill etc.

We keep electing senators and congressmen who are
bought and paid for by the NRA.
 
We glorify the Second amendment
as though it was carved in marble 
and handed down to Moses
from the mountaintop.

We take a collective breath
thank God no one we love was involved - 

and we go on with our lives.

Waiting for the next round to be fired
and then
we repeat our, by now, all too familiar 
national dance.

I'm sighing in deep despair -
because that's apparently all I can do
in this country I neither recognize,
understand
nor want to be a part of.

I am deeply ashamed at where my country is
and the lack of leadership 
and moral integrity
that keeps us from addressing
this hell of our own creation.

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