Commentary
A murderous America
We are a remarkable country. We have done exemplary things — cured polio, ended smallpox, put people on the moon and invented the Twinkie. We set trends: in fashion, music, digital stuff galore, sports and movies. But we have an evil side. We tolerate mass-murder-suicide. We lead the planet in mayhem and madness.
If we look closely in a mirror, we will see that our tolerance for this insanity knows no bounds. Newton, Connecticut is but the latest manifestation of Murderous America. From Columbine to Tucson to Virginia Tech, we hear and then we watch. The shrines go up almost instantly, the memorial services commence, the president grieves for us, the ministers, “mental health professionals” and the television try to comfort the families.
Voices rise in the call for gun control, the same voices actually. But nothing changes.
The nation grieves without anger. The youngster, the killer with the warped mind was troubled. Poor thing.
There are no shocking and horrifying photos of dead children lying in pools of blood, bodies splayed and curled, the lifeless faces of what was the future. The authorities shield us from that horror. That is a mistake. We are paralyzed, meek and mild in the face of this outrage. To see the dead is to face the reality of what we have allowed to be done. This sanitized news does not imprint the horror on our minds and thus spur us to action.
If we saw it perhaps we would act. The nation had to see the death and destruction in Vietnam for it decide that the killing was an enormous, needless waste. It raised fists in anger.
We should be furious. We must confront the horrible thing we have allowed to happen and permit a controlled anger spur us to action.
Steve Auslander is a former editor of the Arizona Daily Star. He blogs at A-Mountain.com.
Related stories
- 3.5 years of ammo magazines sold in 72 hours
- The power of un-reality: Propaganda overwhelms public debate1
- Gun rhetoric vs. gun facts
- Q&A: Does 'gun culture' influence gun-related violence?
- Searching for answers after Sandy Hook shootings
- Regulating assault rifles: A how-to guide for non-shooters3
- Joe Biden to head White House gun control effort
- While not illegal, it's really hard to own a gun in Israel
- Gun sales surge in America
- Grijalva: 'Grief cannot be the end of our response'2
- Adam Lanza taught to shoot by mother
- Newtown shootings: America’s moment of truth
