Synagogue shooting? What was that? They’re coming so fast that they’re shoving each other out of our minds. Is that the plan? Make it so normal that we no longer care? We no longer register each atrocity? It IS normal now. It happens too quickly for us to register.
What happened where? I can’t remember. Columbine. Aurora. Sandy Hook. And now my mind is blank. I should remember them all. We should remember them all. We don’t.
The day of the synagogue shooting I saw a car in the parking lot with an NRA sticker on its bumper. I saw two white guys get out. 50-60 years old. Well there went the faces of the NRA if ever they were. I wanted to approach them and talk to them. Many assumptions went through my mind. “They probably don’t care. They probably hate Jews. Blacks. Homosexuals. Immigrants. Muslims.” That is my prejudice.
There are a few reasons I didn’t approach them. The strong possibility that they were carrying. In my city. A city that was forced to allow ‘normal people’ to carry guns despite our wishes. I am embarrassed to say I was also scared. A chicken shit. And lastly, I wondered would they label me a ‘Libtard’. Shout me down. Dismiss my anti-American (or Uhmercan) rhetoric. And what’s that? A foreign accent. More fodder.
Since I didn’t talk to them I will never know. Maybe one of them has experienced some awful life event that compels them to carry. To take their constitutionally-given right to ‘bear arms’. And by not talking to them do I hold some responsibility of the problem. If we were all willing to discuss this monumental issue would things be different? Would one life be saved? Hundreds? Thousands? I don’t know.
Until then… syna-what? Columbine? Aurora? Aren’t they those nice towns in Colorado? I’ve heard they’re lovely places to raise a family. Stop the madness! Stop the normalcy.
Running Half Empty 