War Zone America

The tragedy that struck Charleston SC on Wednesday night…

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Damn.

OK so you’ve got some people in a church for Bible study and prayer. Right then and there in the heart of their peaceful gathering, an unhinged bastard with a gun opens fire and when the carnage was over, 9 of those good people are dead. It’s just…

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Damn.

Now the loss of life is hard enough to cope with. That it took place in a church twists the knife further.

Also, the victims were black and the fucked in the head jackass who shot them was white. I can’t…

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Damn!

I know that now is a time for mourning. The families and loved ones of those killed and injured during this shooting need love and support. There will be time for anger later.

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Fuck it all, I’m pissed off NOW!

How many more times does this need to happen in America? How many times do innocent people need to fucking DIE just because they happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time? 

Except how can praying in church be a wrong place and a wrong time? How can school children learning in school be a wrong place and a wrong time? How can people out to see a movie be a wrong place and a wrong time?

We’re not talking about being in places where there are signs, metaphorical and literal, that say “STAY OUT OR BE SHOT!” We’re talking about ordinary people in ordinary places doing ordinary things. When the hell did the ordinary world around us become a war zone?

I’ll tell you: when our ordinary world became populated by people-shaped piles of shit who are at war with us and they are armed! These shit beings are pushed by political ideologies, racism, religious extremism, misogyny  or they’re just plain insane…or evil…or all of the above! And I can’t stress this enough: they are ARMED! These nutcases are turning your town, your church, your school, your place of employment into a war zone! And they are winning!

Every time we’ve had one of these mass shootings (and we’ve got a shit load of mass shootings to choose from), politicians wring their hands over what to do or grasp their lapels and go “harumph!” in righteous indignation over what America has become. And then the NRA scoops a shovel full of cash into their campaign coffers and like the dying echoes of a gunshot or the wisp of smoke from a gun barrel, any efforts to seriously curb gun violence in this country disappears. And while that keeps happening, America remains a war zone! Main Street, the neighborhood park, the grocery store, the community center, your own front damn lawn: all of it, a war zone! Anyone anywhere at any time can find themselves with a bullet in them, a casualty of war. There’s no DMZ!

And in the United States of America, a big shiny example of freedom and opportunity, that is totally fucked up! We need to get over our national obsession with guns. Yeah, there’s a 2^nd amendment that supposed to keep the government from prying your precious guns from your grimy fingers and I say fuck that. There is no way in hell anyone back when the US Constitution was drafted could’ve anticipated even in the slightest the nightmare world built upon that amendment.

And I haven’t even gotten to the racial element of the Charleston SC massacre. And yes, there is one, despite Fox News efforts to twist itself in knots to avoid saying it! That shooter didn’t wander into a church that just happened to have black people in it. Hell, no!  While our country may over all be less racist than in the past, those racists that remain have louder voices and more power. Coded messages to get people riled up over the black guy in the Oval Office have stirred the pot and stoked the fire so much, the subculture of racism is not so sub anymore. Fear mongers have radio programs and TV shows from which to spew their toxic drivel. There’s no denying there’s a message out there, a message of fear and hate. And that message is heard. And sometimes but yet way too often, that message is acted upon.

What’s it going to take to make this stop? What will it take to make this country no longer a war zone? What…

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Damn!