Finding an emotion after the Texas church shooting
Nov 6, 2017, 12:11 PM | Updated: Nov 8, 2017, 12:08 pm
(AP Photo/Eric Gay)
I hate to admit it, but I just couldn’t bring myself to read the stories about the latest mass shooting at a Texas church service on Sunday.
I was having a great weekend enjoying the snow flurries, going to a big gala dinner, and looking forward to watching the Hawks game. Then I received a news alert and I didn’t click the link. I saw it again on Twitter, and didn’t click the link.
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Then I saw it in a headline — 26 people were murdered by a man with a gun. In a little over a month, we’ve had two of the most deadly mass shootings in U.S. history. I finally clicked a link and started reading.
But if I’m honest with you, I didn’t feel any strong emotions. I just felt an embarrassed numbness. Intellectually, I know I should be outraged. I know I should try, again, to find a different way to express my opinion on guns and mental health.
I just don’t know if I have it in me this time. I guess this is what helplessness feels like, at least in this arena. I always thought that love wins and that good guys finish first. I was wrong.
Should I point out the starkly different reactions that President Trump had between the “terrorist” that killed eight in New York to the “thoughts and prayers” reaction to the white man with a gun in Texas? Will that make a difference?
Should I dust off my soap box and attempt, again, to poke holes the good-guy-with-a-gun theory, or compare the rates of gun violence in the U.S. to every other first world country? Would that move the needle?
We already know the answer. So you’ll forgive me for waiting until show time on Monday to get up to speed on the details of this latest tragedy.
I’m naturally an optimist, but this seems to be a glass half empty situation. To quote a recent all-caps message from the Tweeter in Chief, “DO SOMETHING!”
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