Monday 27 March 2023

Well, here we are again, another school shooting, another shooting and this time the shooter appears to be a little girl.  Two long guns, two pistols.

About ten minutes ago I predicted the “it could have been worse” narrative and a self-congratulatory press conference where first responders would be praised.

Five minutes later, CNN started the “it could have been worse” narrative.  It’s so predictable, so infuriating, so idiotic. 

Who was it yesterday who said that 3% of the population in this country owns over 50% of the guns.  Why?  For what purpose?   

Yadda, yadda, yadda….anything but talk about the problem…

• What is the role of the FBI in this investigation?
• What the FBI does, their specialized teams.
• Law enforcement will explore every facet of the shooters’ background.
• MSNBC the “police response time was incredibly rapid.”  Ken Delanian (scum bag of the world). 
• Six victims killed.
• Was there any “active shooter” training in the school.
• They “ran toward the shooter.”
• As the always decent Frank Figliuzzi says, “I hate it that we are here” critiquing the methods of law enforcement.  
• But, we are here and the corporate media will spend the next few days lamenting and looking sympathetic and relating irrelevant fact after irrelevant fact trying desperately to create a conversation that looks meaningful.  It, however, will not be.  It is just so much chatter to try to convince viewers that this is not a deeply diseased society.

When I first turned on the television and heard about the shooting, there was a little girl being interviewed, smiling, tilting her head, courting the camera.  “What?” I said to myself as I listened.  “What did they say?  Her mother was inside the building with the shooter?  What?  And she’s smiling?  What the hell is this about.”

Recklessly, I posted the photos of this young girl smiling, deferentially cocking her head for the camera.  Is this what you look like when your mother is inside a school with an armed person?  Is this what you look like describing your mother cowering in response to gunfire?”

The response, of course, was swift, dictatorial, and censorious.  “What kind of a post is this.  Delete it.”  “This person is obviously in shock.  Leave her alone.” 

And, so we go on as a society, turning our heads away, refusing to look, refusing to digest the import of what it in front of our faces.  It is highly likely that this little girl was so taken with the charm of being interviewed on national television that she couldn’t refrain from smiling.

It reminded me very much of the little girl recently who sat as foreman of a grand jury investigating Trump.  When it was over, she couldn’t help herself.  She hit the media trail and talked and smiled and vamped.  She was completely oblivious to how tacky and tasteless her behavior was.  She was going to be on television, all over television.  But, at least, at the very least, she wasn’t smiling and vamping and telling a story about her mother being inside a building with an active shooter.  At least.