Do not look here for witty comments on the massacre of nearly two dozen innocent people -- most of them children -- at Uvalde TX. Don't even expect a lengthy "think piece", as I have no questions that haven't already been asked, no solutions that haven't already been proffered. I have only these few thoughts....
25 years ago, in A Walk in the Woods, Bill Bryson asked what kind of world we live in where even park rangers carry service revolvers. Bill, that is not all the world, just the American part of it. The "gun culture" has become hard-wired into Americans. Many think, with some cause, that if everyone else has a gun, why should I be the only one unable to defend myself?
Park rangers carry sidearms, one supposes, because they are responsible for the safety of park users. They might need to shoot a bear or a rabid skunk... or a stalker who prowls the woods looking for innocents to rape or murder. (Bill Bryson writes of a double murder, still unsolved, in Shenandoah National Park.) By that reasoning, it may be that teachers, responsible as they are for the safety of their pupils, should carry guns.
That thought has been expressed before. After Sandy Hook. After Columbine. These tragedies dramatize the question of gun control -- should there be more or less? -- which dominates political debate this week.
The SJWs, Democrats and other liberals seize on the opportunity to express outrage and demonize conservatives, Republicans and other law-and-order types. So we have the disgraceful exhibition of Beto O'Rourke (D) interrupting the press conference of Texas Governor Greg Abbott (R) to score what can only be called a political "own goal". Shameful.
The anti-Trumpers, SJWS, BLMers etc are having a much harder time with this one than with the Buffalo massacre. They can't put it down to anti-black racism / white supremacy, because the shooter and victims were all (apparently) Hispanics. And the murderer wasn't an illegal alien either, so those arguing for or against amnesty have nothing to say.
But the loony left and t hose pushing the "diversity and inclusivity" agenda will keep trying. One of the more ridiculous appeals I've seen is that of Jaden Janak, a PhD candidate at the University of Texas and a junior fellow at the Center for Applied Transgender Studies. "These children and adults who were murdered yesterday were just living their lives," Mr/Ms/whatever Janak said yesterday. "They didn't know that yesterday was going to be their last day. And similarly, as trans people, that's a fear that we have all the time." Oh dear...
Enough politics. To close, I want to talk about the expressions of grief and other responses to this and just about every other similar incident. "Thoughts and prayers" is such a tired cliché, so overworked, that people (particularly politicians) seem to feel something further must be done to honour the dead, and show sympathy and support for the bereaved.
"Taking a knee" is too political a statement. So we have the lowering of flags on public and private buildings even beyond the border of the US of A. (Agent 3 reports that this has been done at schools in a suburb of Toronto.) So often does this happen that it's becoming unusual to see flags flying at full staff. Upon seeing a flag at half-staff [not "half-mast". Ed.], people ask "Who's died now?" The gesture is now so commonplace as to be meaningless.
So also with the makeshift memorials of flowers, candles, balloons and teddybears which appear within hours at the site of any violent death, whether criminal or accidental. Putting a stuffed animal on the pile in front of the crime scene is nothing more than virtue-signalling, like placing a wreath on a war memorial.
What good do these "tributes" do for those who have died, or for their grieving families? Within a couple of days, the toys and flowers become nothing more than a pile of trash, to be removed under cover of night by the sanitation engineers. Wouldn't it be better to contribute to a GoFundMe appeal to help with funeral expenses, or a worthy charity which is trying to help heal our sick society?
UPDATE ADDED 27/5/22: Canada's Global News reports that Meghan Markle, the Princess of Woke, yesterday visited the memorial site for the victims of the Uvalde school massacre. Dressed in attire appropriate to the occasion, she placed white flowers tied with a purple ribbon at a memorial outside the Uvalde County Courthouse. Mercifully, she refrained from making a speech.
The Duchess of Sussex (her other title) lives in California with her husband Prince Hairy and their two mixed-race children. Further comment from me would be superfluous.
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