When The Next One Happens

I've long since become desensitized to mass shootings.  I didn't stop caring that innocent people keep getting murdered.  I'll never stop caring about that.  I've just stopped being interested in the story when it happens.  And I've stopped pretending we're going to do a damn thing to stop it from happening.

We're not going to do anything about it.  We're going to keep letting right wing politicians and pundits tell us that it's "too soon" to talk about gun control because that's "politicizing a tragedy".  We won't actually fight for any real gun reform, even though we know it would work.

We're going to keep letting them distract from the gun issue to make it about mental illness.  But we won't fight for any meaningful action about mental illness.  We'll let them scapegoat the mentally ill and blame them for these tragedies while doing nothing to help either problem.

We're going to keep letting them blame secularism rather than the guns.  They'll keep saying people get murdered because they need Jesus.  Sure, we'll bitch about them on the Internet.  But we won't put them in their place anywhere of consequence, like a legislature.

We're so used to these things happening, Presidential candidates casually refer to "the next one".  Because we all know there will be more.

We're not going to do anything to fix it.  We've even shown indifference to elementary school children being murdered.  After ignoring that, what the fuck would it take for us to fix it.

The pattern is so predictable, The Daily Show can joke about prerecording their responses to it.  Anyone could prerecord a response to the next one and have it work.  Because it's the same fucking thing every time.

Mass shootings are a part of our culture that, for a variety reasons, we're not ready to give up.  I refuse to pretend we are ready until we are actually doing something outside of the script.

Unfortunately, that time isn't coming any time soon.

How do I know?  I wrote most of this after the Aurora shooting and just updated it with current references.

I can write this without even mentioning which shooting, and most people reading it will probably have a different one in mind.  Especially since there have been 4 shootings since the one I most recently wrote this for.

An Open Letter to Brad Strait - Miracles

The following is my response to a blog post by Brad Strait about the aftermath of the our most recent mass shooting, in Aurora, Colorado.

Yesterday, you posted your story of a young woman you know, Petra

Petra was hit four times with a shot-gun blast, three shots into her arm and one bullet which entered her brain. This a bit of Petra’s miracle story.

You think this situation was a miracle.  Please allow me to share another perspective.

I am unable to see a young woman getting shot 4 times as a miracle, no matter the details of her survival.  I find it incredibly arrogant when someone thinks their god saved the person they knew when 12 others in the same incident died.

What was it about those 12 that kept them from being worthy of the miracle you say saved Petra?  Were they not Christian enough?  Did their family not pray enough or in the correct manner?

You detail all the effort the doctors put into saving Petra's life, but then you follow it with this.

Thank you, Lord, for every little thing. We sit. We pray.

Instead of thanking a god, who I presume you believe had the power to prevent the entire tragedy, my choice would have been to give appropriate credit to the doctors who worked tirelessly to save Petra.  You clearly understand the human effort that went into saving her life.  

Nurses, like quiet soldiers posted on guard, come in, march attentively through the machines, and go out.  These men and women really care. Finally, one of the surgeons comes in to check on Petra. He has had some sleep, and looks more like a movie star this time. As Petra sleeps, he retells the story of the surgery, and we ask questions.  The doctor reads the perfect script, as if he is on Hallmark Hall of Fame. He fills us in on the miracle. Honestly, he doesn’t call it that, he just uses words like “happily” and “wonderfully” and “in a very fortunate way” and “luckily” and “we were really surprised by that.”  Kim and I know a miracle when we see it.

But then, when you ultimately wrote something about the incident, you gave all the credit to your god.  I am unable to see this as anything but a slap in the face of the doctors who did the real work.  If not for those doctors, she'd be dead.

You say your god gave Petra a brain defect in order to save her life later when he let her get shot.  I say your god could have prevented her (and the dozens of others) from getting shot in the first place.  Then he could have given her a defect-free brain.

It’s just like the God I follow to plan the route of a bullet through a brain long before Batman ever rises.

There is much ahead. More surgerys. Facial reconstruction, perhaps.

If this nightmare is your idea of a miracle, I pity you for worshiping such a pathetically useless god.  Show me a god who prevents massacres like this & doesn't give nice young girl's mothers cancer.  Then we can talk about miracles.  Until then, your talk of miracles disgusts me.

You spit on the probably-not-even-dug-yet graves of the 12 who died.  You disregard the real work real people did to save her life in favor of crediting your god, who appears, from my perspective, to have had absolutely nothing to do with how these events have played out.

I'm all for you keeping your faith in your god, but please use your brain after the next tragedy before speaking of miracles.  Unless, of course, you're so selfish that you only care of the well being of yourself and the people you know personally and are fine with 12 people dying so your friend can be the recipient of a miracle.  I suspect you're better than that, but that's ultimately up to you.