Let's play Match Game, a TV game show on which contestants tried to guess how a celebrity would most likely complete a phrase. For instance, one might have to guess how someone would complete Baby ____. For instance, it might be baby face, Baby Ruth, baby oil, etc. You get the idea. Right now, how would most Americans complete the phrase School _____? School spirit? possibly. School play? maybe. School dance? could be. There are a number of possible answers but there is no question that many or most Americans' first thought would be "School shooting."
How did this happen?! In the 20th century the number of mass murders that took place at schools wasn't zero, but "shooting" certainly didn't automatically fill in "school____" the way "cream" might complete "ice ___." School shooting" should sound as perverse to us as "quilting bee knife fight" but it doesn't and that's tragic. Despite living in relative peace and prosperity, far too many Americans can't comfortably coexist with other human beings unless they are perpetually in a position to kill them should they ever threatened...or disrespected...or more likely, just spooked by whatever bogeymen plague their imagination.
I'm a little too young to have gone through duck and cover drills. However, to this day I have a distinct memory of the air raid drill from 1st grade. We had to leave school early and walk home immediately! We were told that if we didn't walk home as fast as possible the police would take us to jail. As a small child I actually believed that I would be arrested on what I can only presume would be a charge of 2nd degree dilly-dallying. I bring this up for a reason. In the 20th century we were in the throes of the cold war. The enemy was what Reagan called the "Evil Empire". Now, instead of drills to protect ourselves from a foreign foe, we are now having active shooter drills in schools. Children no longer expect their worst nightmares to come from other countries; they prepare to avoid being murdered by young American men. The mass-murderer in this case bought his weapons of mass destruction when he turned 18. Republicans who ironically claim to be pro-life love that he can do so even if he can't celebrate this purchase with a beer or wine cooler for three more years because he isn't thought to ready to handle it. For the same reason. if he wanted to rent a car to take him to the hellscape he was about to create, he would have to wait another seven years.
The naked face of evil is no longer represented by a hammer and sickle. It now lives in a home that watches Alex Jones or at least Tucker Carlson. I think of the movie Mississippi Burning and the Willem Dafoe character saying "What's wrong with these people? when he took part in rescuing someone from a lynching. I'm absolutely horrified by what we have become, and I refuse to pretend that it's simply another point of view. I am as ashamed of who we are as Americans as I used to be proud of who we were. Also, stop telling me it's about mental health and not our love of killing people. First, OK, so what are you doing to fix out mental health crisis? Yeah...that's what I thought! Other countries have citizens with mental health issues but no country like us comes anywhere near our bloodshed. If you continue to pretend that this is OK, I'm not sure I can continue to pretend that millions of Americans are OK.
