That photo of me during what would become the peak of my adolescent geekdom is at the top of the fourth most viewed post on my blog, titled "Let's Talk About the Gun." Approximately 32,000 people have found it since I posted it in 2014 shortly after I posted the photo for the first time and was deluged with inquiries about "the gun."
Again, it isn't a gun. You can read about it if you click on the link.
People love guns in this country or google the words a lot.
I was reminded of it tonight when I read about a group of Trump-loving fools riding up Ventura Blvd this weekend in some kind of caravan. I believe shots were fired, but who did what is unclear. The POSPOTUS, of course, tweeted The only way you will stop the violence in the high crime Democrat run cities is through strength!, which I guess means guns. A friend from Michigan reminded me of the Trump-loving gun-toting cowards who stormed their capitol, fully armed, to protest masks or something or other, their foolish faces screaming into the masked soldiers standing at arms outside the legislative body's door. Those dudes didn't blink, their mouths still behind their black masks, even though there was a bunch of Covid 19-laden spittle hovering in the air. Afterward, I guess the White fools went home and ate some terrible food cooked by their wives who had shopped for it, ignorant that it had been picked and packed and slaughtered and quartered by the immigrants they hate and other sufferers of the fake virus. I was thinking about that hateful White 17 year old fool murderer who drove twenty miles to protect some property in Kenosha, Wisconsin, killed a couple of people and then walked right on by a bunch of cops. I was thinking about those two tacky fool lawyers in pink and khaki and stripes who came out of their faux chateau in St. Louis, Missouri, fully armed as peaceful protesters strolled by, eventually lauded by the POSPOTUS himself at his hateful foolish sycophant fest. Good for them! I heard someone say about them. I started thinking about how people I know keep guns in their house to protect myself and my family. I was trying to imagine what it would feel like to get trained using a gun and then to carry one around in anticipation of or just in case you'd need to kill someone. And then I thought of the brilliant quote by writer and deeply Christian thinker, Marilynne Robinson. It's been over there on my sidebar since I plucked it out of an essay some years ago -- an interview she had done with President Barack Obama. She said,
Normalizing the idea that we should all go around capable of a lethal act at any moment is completely corrupt and crazy. I wouldn't carry a gun. The reason I wouldn't carry a gun is because it is an immoral act walking around imagining you're going to kill someone. It's a recipe for a completely deranged society. It's grotesque.
Tens of thousands of people have viewed that one silly blog post of mine, and I know it's not because of my gingham dress. We're a completely deranged and corrupt society in the big fat ugly year of double twenties in Terrible America. We are grotesque.
To have a gun is to acknowledge the fact that you are willing to take the life of another, unless it's a hunting rifle, although that is still taking the life of another.
ReplyDeleteTo kill a human being places a heavy burden on your soul. You carry that soul with you for the rest of your life. I don't think people think about that, but there are consequences.
Most people don't think though, I am convinced. Humankind feels like a failed experiment right now.
You're right. Marilynne Robinson is right- we are grotesque. There is no more accurate way to describe what our country has become.
ReplyDeleteWhat Ms.Moon said. We are grotesque. Struggling to see how this country can heal .
ReplyDeleteYes. Grotesque. And a country that normalizes a nuclear arsenal is corrupt and crazy. We are one of a number of countries who, day and night, year after year, are capable of committing horrific murder by nuclear weapons. So much can no longer be ignored.
ReplyDeleteCoincidentally, my post with the largest number of views was written in response to the pepper-spraying of students at UC Davis by policemen during the Occupy movement in 2011:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UC_Davis_pepper_spray_incident
I never noticed the "gun". I noticed you reading and then I noticed the fire place.
ReplyDeleteI can see the striking resemblance of Sophie to you in that photo... and I thought that was a Gun muzzle too in the image! The Man and I are polar opposites when it comes to Guns... of coarse he was Career Military, 39 Years and a trained Sniper for the USMC. I only ever fired a Rifle once at skeet when I was a Kid and it almost knocked my shoulder out of joint and I didn't like anything about shooting even inanimate objects, let alone another living sentient being! It is so grotesque in our Nation right now... as we slide into an Authoritarian Regime it is terrifying in fact. There are far too many Americans who will embrace violence, hatred and running amok with their beloved weaponry turned against other Americans. Those who have remained Silent thru all of this fuckery are complicit in where we now find ourselves. We cannot Normalize any of this!
ReplyDeleteOMG. I love that Robinson quote. So many people live in a bizarre, perplexing state of continual heightened fear. I mean, the world can be scary, but not the kind of scary that requires weaponry. (That's a telescope in the picture, right?!)
ReplyDeleteWhen I heard that one should never be a gun owner unless one is willing to shoot to kill another human, I knew I would never own a gun. So much of our nation's ills can be laid at the foot of gun violence.
ReplyDeleteCor, this was beautiful and raw and straight to the heart. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteGreetings from London.