Insatiable

Two days after the mass shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, my daughter, wife and I are in the Game Stop, shopping for a Wii game for our son, Epic Mickey or some such. I rarely venture into Game Stop, not being a gamer myself – except for a mild addiction to FIFA Soccer that I play on my iPad – and I was shocked by how many games are devoted to violence: Call of Duty, Gears of War, Halo 4, Dead Space, and more too numerous to mention.

It seems our appetite for make believe violence is only marginally greater than it is for the real thing. I should mention here that, although I have no desire to own, display or shoot a firearm, I’m not opposed to responsible, well-trained people owning them because these are not the people who launch rampages in movie theatres, on college campuses, and in elementary school classrooms. Outside of a firing range, these people rarely brandish or fire their weapons.

As expected, pundits, secular and otherwise, are churning out volumes about the latest American mass killing. Mainstream media outlets speak less about the politics of guns and more about personal tragedies – the daughter who was the light in her father’s eye, the son who delighted his mother with his sense of humor.  Political considerations don’t produce the kind of engaging morning drama that rivets people to the tube – stories of overpowering loss and heartbreak do that, coping with unthinkable devastation does that, as does engaging in psychological speculation about the mind of a misfit killer.

Sandy Hook Elementary school will never be the same any more than Aurora, Colorado will be the same, or Oklahoma City or Oak Creek, Wisconsin.  No matter how many prayers believers direct God’s way, the stain cannot be removed from these places.

What to say about a country where firearms are easier to come by than college loans; and the political class devotes trillions of dollars to war or war-making potential; and the economic system promotes cut-throat, deadly competition that reduces most citizens to desperate serfdom;  and access to decent, affordable health care is a privilege of wealth rather than a right of citizenship; and members of our all-voluntary military are called “warriors” and “heroes,”; and our government launches drone strikes against unarmed and innocent civilians; and that same government props up dictators with cash and weapons for decades; and our local police are militarized as if the citizenry are poised to revolt. What to say?

I have no fucking idea.

Do you?