pervocracy: It’s a ritual now. You know
May. 24th, 2018 04:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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pervocracy:
It’s a ritual now. You know how it goes
The first news reports are confused, incomplete, just the location and something about an “active shooter.” You still have room to hope it’s not too bad, maybe someone just fired some rounds in the air and didn’t hit anyone. Or maybe there’s only one or two dead; that would make it more like just a regular murder. That’s a thing you can hope for too.
Then you get the body count. Then the updated body count. There was a point in your life when that number might have made you cry. Now you just sigh. Maybe when you see all the names and pictures you’ll cry a little. Maybe when you see the obituaries saying things like “she liked rabbits and dancing” because, hey, what can you really say when you’re telling the life story of a child who had barely started to live?
The suspect is taken, sometimes dead, sometimes alive. Their motivations are mostly opaque. Something something “troubled,” something something “red flags,” here’s some social media posts that are kinda creepy or extremist but not beyond what ten thousand other teenage edgelords might post.
There’s a gun control debate. There’s a mental health debate. There’s a bullying debate. There’s a tug-of-war over the shooter’s political and/or ethnic affiliation. There’s a “maybe the victims are really the evil ones” debate that used to be a weird fringe sideshow but is apparently mainstream now. There’s a violent entertainment debate. There’s a thousand little “this is really about my pet issue, and here’s why…” debates.
Thoughts and prayers are offered, politicians make their Serious Face. Facebook icons are changed. The Onion posts this article. Flags are at half-mast for a week. Flags are always at half-mast these days anyway. We bitterly say “this will all be forgotten in a week” to each other, then forget it in a week.
Then another news report comes on, confused and incomplete.
–
I’m sad and angry and want this to end. I have some hope that the Parkland survivors’ self-advocacy became a turning point, started to break the cycle. Something has to.
(Your picture was not posted)
pervocracy:
It’s a ritual now. You know how it goes
The first news reports are confused, incomplete, just the location and something about an “active shooter.” You still have room to hope it’s not too bad, maybe someone just fired some rounds in the air and didn’t hit anyone. Or maybe there’s only one or two dead; that would make it more like just a regular murder. That’s a thing you can hope for too.
Then you get the body count. Then the updated body count. There was a point in your life when that number might have made you cry. Now you just sigh. Maybe when you see all the names and pictures you’ll cry a little. Maybe when you see the obituaries saying things like “she liked rabbits and dancing” because, hey, what can you really say when you’re telling the life story of a child who had barely started to live?
The suspect is taken, sometimes dead, sometimes alive. Their motivations are mostly opaque. Something something “troubled,” something something “red flags,” here’s some social media posts that are kinda creepy or extremist but not beyond what ten thousand other teenage edgelords might post.
There’s a gun control debate. There’s a mental health debate. There’s a bullying debate. There’s a tug-of-war over the shooter’s political and/or ethnic affiliation. There’s a “maybe the victims are really the evil ones” debate that used to be a weird fringe sideshow but is apparently mainstream now. There’s a violent entertainment debate. There’s a thousand little “this is really about my pet issue, and here’s why…” debates.
Thoughts and prayers are offered, politicians make their Serious Face. Facebook icons are changed. The Onion posts this article. Flags are at half-mast for a week. Flags are always at half-mast these days anyway. We bitterly say “this will all be forgotten in a week” to each other, then forget it in a week.
Then another news report comes on, confused and incomplete.
–
I’m sad and angry and want this to end. I have some hope that the Parkland survivors’ self-advocacy became a turning point, started to break the cycle. Something has to.
(Your picture was not posted)
