Remember, Remember the 4th of December

Was this the shot that finally woke us up?

Dec 09, 2024

people with mask with truth poster — Photo by Florian Glawogger on Unsplash

Somebody had to do it, right?

You may love him, hate him, disagree with him, support him, what you can’t do is ignore him.

Regardless of what you think of his methods, the shooter did something that years of protests haven’t been able to do, he got their attention.

I used to have fantasies about how to end rape or, because my mother was killed by a drunk driver, ways to stop people from drinking and driving. I was never sure if it would act as the deterrent I hoped for, but the premise was simple, I believed that one or two very public castrations might make people think before they raped and one or two public executions of drunk drivers might help curb the behavior. In the event that someone believes that this is simplistic and unrealistic, I know, but it’s just a fantasy.

We have a “vigilante,” apparently versed in avoiding identification who is, 5 days later, still free, an insurance industry that is quaking in its boots, and a nation of disenfranchised, oppressed people cheering for him.

When the gangsters of the 1930s robbed banks, the poor didn’t feel bad for the banks. The poor cheered on the “criminals” who took from the institutions that had taken so much from them.

When you see a small non-human dead on the road, do you mourn its loss, do you say a prayer for its family?

I would be surprised if even one caring, compassionate individual, who publicly expressed concern for the executive’s family, didn’t secretly admire this man for what he did.

I thought long and hard about what sort of public stance I would take on this event.

I looked deeply into myself to see if I could find some compassion for this man and his family, there was nothing.

What I did find was concern and compassion for the millions of suffering people just in this country who have no medical insurance, the million plus people who died from COVID, all the people who are suffering from Long COVID, all the people who have gone bankrupt because of medical bills they can’t pay, all the homeless and starving children, all the people who are losing their homes, all the people who are working long hours at bad paying jobs just so they can afford rent, all the people who are struggling while they endure abuse at the hands of their employers, all the non-humans who have families of their own who die every day because of a callous disregard for their lives. This is where my concern and caring lie.

It’s entirely possible that with this one act, the shooter may have started a fire that will be impossible to put out.

It’s entirely possible that this event will finally wake us up to what is needed.

It’s also entirely possible that people who have finally woken up to what might be asked of them will pull up the comforting blanket of false “concern” about violent actions and go back to sleep.

I have come up with what, I think, is a new term. I believe that the shooter “Dexterized” the CEO (Watching the original TV series or reading the book Darkly Dreaming Dexter will help you understand the reference.) He never killed anyone who didn’t deserve it and he carefully vetted each victim.

It does not upset me that this man was killed.

It would not upset me is this caught on.

It would not upset me if the people who are in control finally found out that they’re not in control.

We’ve seen the effect of half-measures.

We’ve seen the effect of playing by their rules.

Maybe it’s time that they see the effect of us making up new rules.

In her Poem for South African Women, June Jordan said, “We are the ones we have been waiting for.”

Are we?

Way Past What the F**K

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