I know why they are common.
Mass shootings are very rare outside the United States. Why are they so common here? (-from, The GOP War on Civil Virtue, by Paul Krugman, NYT, 26may2022j
Because we see constant bickering
Because we had a president, who, along with his family, were con artists, poseurs, and unhappy people who mocked and slandered anyone who couldn’t make them richer or more powerful.
Because, whether you voted Red or Blue, you were lied to and told that elections are fraudulent and cheating was rife.
Because cynicism and constant accusation is normal discourse in social media, cable stations, congress, and tabloid journalism.
Because the Supreme Court has fallen to partisan petulance and political ideology from a fantasized height of thoughtful objective justice.
Because Catholic priests sexually abuse youth and adults.
Because Protestant Ministers sexually abuse youth and adults.
Because athletes get paid upwards of hundreds of thousands of dollars to play an hour or two of each of their games with salaries and endorsements.
Because sexuality has become course, menacing, and raw in videos, songs, and film.
Because banks and stock market mavens and corporate executives make hundreds of thousands of dollars every hour while reading the headlines in newspapers telling of murders, fraudulent schemes, embezzlement and extortion.
Because police think that black men are ipso facto suspicious, dangerous, and expendable.
Because sexual or gender orientation is so upsetting an issue for folks unsure exactly why.
Because elected congressional representatives include among their ranks petty liars, deranged ideologues, and crass nihilists.
Because the senior senator from Kentucky is a jaded non-leader for whom the sole accomplishment is seizure of power and destruction of legislation needed to stabilize the country.
Because colleges and universities have become empty promises to those not already rich and secure.
Because religion has become a vacant building with ancient graffiti peeling from walls and broken spines of strewn texts.
Because our moral spine is broken.
Because the only plea is fund raising emails from every organization on earth.
Because when a corrupt autocrat invades another country every world leader starts to play chess and what-if and what-can-we-really-do over anguishing cups of coffee and fretful news conferences.
Because impotence is the new virtue.
Because we are evolving out of a once believed story of existence into a new tale told by a fool signifying nothing.
Because any tale-telling fool can buy an AR15 and slaughter children in classrooms, elderly Black grandmothers in grocery stores, worshippers in synagogues and churches, music revealers in nightspots or outdoor concerts, anyone congregating anywhere for any purpose, drone strikes on attendees at weddings in the Middle East, assassinations from balconies and on city streets, bombs at corner cafes in European towns.
Because we no longer know how to care.
Because we have not yet come to understand that love is not abusive control.
Because
Because
Because…
…Guns are the new scripture, the new body of Christ that we take, eat, and spew out at everyone, anyone…
Because
I am not immune, distant, nor exempt from each or any of every ’because’ above.
Perhaps, to hear, a different take, a different version, an aesthetic reprieve from complaint and toward a complementarity of concrescence.
Because
The Beatles
Aah
Because the world is round
It turns me on
Because the world is round
Aah
Because the wind is high
It blows my mind
Because the wind is high
Aah
Love is old, love is new
Love is all, love is you
Because the sky is blue
It makes me cry
Because the sky is blue
Aah
Written by: Mccartney, Lennon
Album: Love
Released: 2006