Nurse the Hate: Texas School Shooting

As we know from past experience, now is “too soon” to discuss the consistent gun massacres in schools, the thought being that emotions are too raw.  We missed that brief window between the last one and this one when talking about guns would have been acceptable.  What no one is saying is that because of the routine of these shootings, it is becoming harder and harder to muster any legitimate emotions.  The Public becomes immune to the story after hearing it enough times.  Remember a couple of years ago when the population was flipping out because the President of the United States was telling lies?  Now it is just a known quantity and is essentially accepted as The Way Things Are.  School shootings have become the same.

I hardly even glanced at the headline when it scrolled across.  School shooting reported in Texas.  Yawn.  I knew the basic story line.  Quiet kid showed up at school with guns, shot a bunch of classmates and probably killed himself.  Interviews with crying teenagers.  Whatever.  My brain is now able to shove that in the same place as “Mexican Earthquake Claims 17 Lives” and “Tragic Plane Crash In Cuba”.  School shootings are just part of the daily mosaic of the news cycle.  It's a concept and not a real thing.  I feel much more outrage when I see the castrated politicians offer up their empty promises and false grief.

Trump immediately said the administration would do “everything in our power” to protect schools and keep guns away from those who should not have them.  Even if a moment of righteousness somehow flickered across that man’s brain, by this weekend the NRA will have him in line with their talking points.  I predict “a pivot” into suggesting this is a mental health issue, not a gun issue, and we need to do more to combat mental health issues.  As mental health issues are mostly undetectable, this is essentially vowing to protect a town from floods by offering to combat the rain. 

“We are with you in this tragic hour and we will be with you forever…” was offered up on the President’s Twitter feed.  I can translate this into “This is the gesture of empathy that the office dictates I make, and I am hoping this blows over by Tuesday as I have already forgotten about it as have most other Americans”.  Fore!  I barely glanced at the story, as I already know how it ends.  The bottom line is that not enough people care.  We have decided that thousands of shooting victims are an acceptable trade for gun enthusiasts to maintain their fantasies of vigilante justice where they are cast as heroes.  Come and take it.  Ka-pow!   

Wal Mart Nation has the steering wheel in this country right now.  America is becoming greater every day.  It’s pre-facism with a redneck fashion streak.  Self-delusion and ignorance rule the day.  There is no reason to believe this gun violence problem will be addressed because we have decided that no problem exists.  The same old rhetoric will get tossed back and forth next week with no movement in any direction.  The gun manufacturers will stick to their playbook of letting things cool down so the simpleminded populace will back burner the issue.  If the gun companies get lucky they might convince the lunatics in office to spend millions on guns for schools, turning lemons into lemonade if you will.  Score!

This weekend they will bury ten kids in Texas.  Crying parents will vow to fight for change.  Politicians will hide.  Cable news will devolve into pointless side squabbles about gun categorization, the false beliefs surrounding the Second Amendment, various smoke screens, and NRA spokespeople dropping their flimsy talking points into the stew.  We’ve seen this before.  Yawn.  Change the channel.  It’s just The Way Things Are.