Yesterday I wrote about being less serious
and more frivolous. That pretty damn hard to do on a day like this. Sadly, days
like this seem to becoming increasingly too common. I’ve seen some shitty, despicable
events go down in my years on the planet, and honestly they never get any
easier to swallow. There was a time after 9/11 when I was standing with my
young kids among my fellow Lincoln citizens, singing songs and joining hands,
when I thought things were going to forever change for the better. As much as I
realized then that my kids would be growing up in a far different world than
the one I did, I sincerely had hope that we’d arrived collectively as human
beings and citizens at a place we could make long-lasting positive changes.
Now, however, they’re just seems to be a hell of lot more shitty events than
ever to swallow, and that pisses me off.
When people die, it without question deserves
reflection. When people die so needlessly and so often as has unfortunately
become the case, something deserves to be done. The problem is that those things
that need to be done never get done. If I piss you off by what I’m about to
write, I apologize, but frankly, pissing you or your senses off are the least of
my concerns right now. This shit has to stop. It’s time to stop merely “keeping
those who have suffered in my thoughts and prayers.” It’s time to prevent the
damn madness from happening in the first place.
This doesn’t mean putting a metal
detector at every damn entrance to a movie theater or school door or airport
gate, either. It means changing the way we treat people. It means paying
attention to our neighbors. It means stop obsessing about ourselves and our
wealth and incessant need to feel good every second of every day and instead start
taking a seriously long, hard look around. It means making the process of obtaining
weapons that no fucking man off the street should every need in the first place
a near damn impossible one. It means creating so many hoops to jump through
that only the most credible and legitimate among us can jump through them all.
It means getting the fucking guns off the street, out of the god damn
Wal-Marts, out of the underground online black markets, and out of the back of publicly
sold and privately distributed magazine and newsletters born from the likes of “Soldier
of Fortune.” It means taking the power away from those who can’t handle or
deserve it and putting it back in the hands of the responsible collective.
There have been any number of responsible, reasonable gun control plans offered
up over the years, going back decades to when I was a kid and school was dismissed
early because our President had been gunned down in the god damn street. These
plans deserve a chance to prove themselves. We’ve proven the right to bear arms
doesn’t. Which leads me to our leadership.
President Obama and Mitt Romney have
both today called for us to come together. To reflect on the lives lost. To put
those who have died and been injured in our prayers. To put politics aside.
Well, yeah, OK. That’s all fine and good. I’d expect you both to say as much.
But now show us how, god damn it. Show us by example. Run clean campaigns. Run
clean administrations. Practice what you preach, not just today while the
nation collectively mourns but tomorrow and the day after and every day after
that. Show us when everything is seemingly fine in the world. The same goes for
Congress. Stop talking about the moral high ground your party walks on and just
pass the laws we instruct you to. Represent our beliefs and desires. Stop
telling us what those should be. Stop showing us on a daily basis that your
primary objective is to cut the opposition’s throat. Conduct your business with
respect and professionalism. Work toward your individual and respective beliefs,
but do it above the belt.
As for you, talk show host, fuck you.
Fuck you for telling me even today that it isn’t your fault when these acts of
violence occur. Fuck you for telling me how much you love this country. How
much you love this country more than anyone else. Stop telling me what a piece
of shit I am because I don’t agree with you. Stop making your arguments with
insults. Just fucking stop. Fuck you for telling me that politics doesn’t
matter on a day like this while the whole time you practice those politics from
out the other side of your mouth.
If our leadership and so-called educated
and the so-called patriots of our country can’t conduct themselves without
petty attacks and backstabbing and the most ill of intentions, how do they
expect their nation’s citizens to do the same. When our leadership splits the country
so deeply in two sections and with such conviction and extreme force, how are
our citizens, particularly those who are young and entirely influential, not supposed
to notice?
Attack, attack, attack. This country is obsessed
with aggression. Obsessed with dominance. This country’s citizens have become
so obsessed with pounding its beliefs on anyone who doesn’t agree with them, on
anyone who hails from a different background, it’s like living in a
battlefield. Conflict is what we do best. The population has become so
single-minded in getting individual opinions across as being morally and
legally and ethically correct that there’s no room for dissention. Absolutely
none. The possibility of resolution seems incredibly remote. Common ground has
disappeared. Pick or side or else. . . .
Bullshit. I’m sick of my kids knowing so
much about division. So much about opposition. So much about judgments and hate
and superiority as it relate to class and race and religion. I’m sick of bombs
being dropped on their heads every day in the form of example after example of
senseless and needless violence. I’m sick of every day of their existence seemingly
being tainted in one way or another with mass exposure to threat, including
terroristic attacks stemming from abroad and from within. I’m sick of their
lives being filled with adults passing judgments on their gay friends or friends
of different ethnicities or religious backgrounds. Filled with peers passing
judgments on their tastes, their likes, and their dislikes. I’m sick of the snide
remarks. I’m sick of racists and homophobes. Sick of political party bashers.
Sick of the pursuit of power and wealth. And if you tell me, “Well, if you don’t
like, move to another country,” I’ll tell you to “fuck off.” You move. I’ll
stick it out and do what I can to make the country I was born to and the
country my children live in one that won’t chew them up and leave them laying.
Sweet Jesus, what has been gained for
any of that power? The citizens of our country hate one another. Our children
believe there’s no future for them. They resolve their despondence by
eliminating those they believe made them despondent.
The world is a mean, ugly place. I get
it. But does it have to be this ugly and mean? Here’s an idea. Let’s focus on
the reality of the situation: Our country is fucked up. It’s become hostile. It’s
become unforgiving. It’s become violent. It’s become manipulative and
demeaning. The hostility is being fueled in part by so many living in society
filled with so much disparity, a lack of acceptance, and sense of entitlement. Those
problems must be rectified and healed. There’s enough to go around. There’s
work for everyone to do. Everyone must be held responsible. Everyone. You, me,
billionaires, homeless on the street, and everyone in between. These events are
no longer ones that can be passed off as “some psycho went nuts.” We’re growing
the breeding ground, people. This world is serving as the breeding ground.
There is no appropriate justice we can
place on someone who kills 12 people and injures 50 others. There’s no equity
there. Take his life, OK. Does that make us equal? Hell no. It’s not a matter of
justice anymore. It’s a matter of prevention. We must change the system. We must
change the mindset of what it means to be American and on a larger and more
important scale, what it means to be human. We must stop talking about how
sorry we are when people lose their lives to senseless acts of violence and actually
instead do something concrete and formidable about it. We must use our sorrow
to create something positive in exchange. It’s not a coincidence that this
event in Denver and the one in Columbine and the one in Arizona and the one at
Virginia Tech and the one in Omaha and so many others involved youth.
Here’s the deal, you and I can rant and
rave or profess and pray about our sorrow all we want, but unless we’re willing
to start doing something, we’ve accomplished nothing. For now, start by reassessing
your beliefs. Reassess what you stand for. If you stand for nothing, get in the
god damn game already and change something for the better. Ask if your beliefs unite
or divide? Ask if they leave someone in a better position than before. Then,
turn your attention toward being a better parent. Give your kid hope. Reinforce
your love. Reinforce your support. Reinforce their faith in family and
community. Give them reasons to believe instead of to give up.
Look, I’m no source of great wisdom. I’m
just pissed off. I’m likely misguided in some areas and speaking out of a place
of rage in others. But fuck, my eyes are open, and I’m ready to do what it takes. It's time to stop wondering why these things happen and reacting when they do. It's time to care enough to change what we can. Now.
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