So, have your prayer meetings helped stem the violence? Your vigils? Your words of comfort? Your calls to heal? To heel? What about holding hands while walking downtown with big banners and protesting by shouting “lives matter?” Not yet? Try going to church, calling for unity, waving the flag and saying “this must stop,” one hundred times. Light plenty of candles, practice mourning, finger pointing and soul searching; it’s all good for you . . . but don’t hold your breath.
Let me guess: you are surprised that a society whose heroes and leaders are mostly people of violence, meaning Dirty Harry, Arnold, Chuck Connors, Bruce Lee, Matt Dillon, She-Hulk, Swamp Thing, Iron Man and others—I could go on—this society that enjoys violent video games, watches violent movies, sends soldiers overseas to bogus wars, is the world’s biggest arms provider and allows anyone to buy an assault weapon, would turn violent? How quaint. Why on earth would you think that?
Here’s a conversation I overheard (just reporting the facts):
“You mean you got a duck egg, hatched it, fed the duckling until it was full grown, and now you’re surprised it quacks? What did you think it would do? Did you think it was going to chirp? To tweet, peep, squeak . . . to sing? Don’t take it personal, but there’s more than one quack here.”
“Don’t bother me with logic. Besides, my right to duck hatched eggs is protected.”
“Freudian slip?”
“What?”
“Inalienable right?”
“Exactly.”
“Do you even know what inalienable means?”
“As long as I can get my eggs to hatch, I don’t need to know.”
mt