CSotD: Rinse and Repeat
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I like Rod Emmerson’s commentary on America’s legally protected penchant for mass murder. The fact that he’s observing our national fetish from New Zealand is a good indication of how widely recognized, totally insane and appallingly unique it is.
Even more telling is the fact that he drew this in 2015 and posted it now because it’s just as relevant today as it was a decade ago, and, for that matter, it would have been equally relevant any time within the quarter century since Columbine.
It’s hard to come up with anything original, given the number of times we’ve repeated the same story.
Ruben Bolling was out of the blocks quickly in 1999, mocking the burst of both amateur and professional psychological speculation that burst forth as experts tried to explain the Columbine shooters to media eager to expand on the story.
But six years later, Varvel was explaining the Red Lake shooter, who had had a chaotic, difficult life, but, as it turned out, with a significant amount of intervention from various sources, apparently more focused, but, alas, no more effective than he’d have received from the ink-blot experts in Bolling’s earlier piece.
Also in response to 2005’s Red Lake shootings, Wilkinson pointed to the issue of easy access to guns, a topic that would be raised after every shooting but pragmatically addressed rarely if ever.
Her “feeding tube” reference is to the then-current case of Terri Schiavo, who was being kept alive in a persistent vegetative state while arguments raged over disconnecting her feeding tubes and allowing her to die.
In response to the latest shootings, Granlund concedes the growing normalcy of the event, which predictably has drawn the usual combination of “hopes and prayers” with no discernible action aimed at preventing any repeats.
Davies references news today as Wilkinson did in 2005, bringing in the stubborn resistance to calls for ceasefires in both Ukraine and Gaza and comparing it to the refusal by Second Amendment hardliners to allow changes in our gun laws.
Golding inadvertently joins the conversation, having drawn this cartoon prior to the church shootings and meaning only to reference the war in Gaza. Still, it applies to either, given the ghastly oxymoron of placing “predetermined” and “tragic” in the same sentence.
It really can’t be both.
Granted, “tragic” has become as flimsy a word as “literally,” being applied to events in which it certainly doesn’t follow Aristotle’s requirements for an ironic crash from the heights, brought about by pride.
But even within its current generalized meaning of “sad,” it’s hard to summon sorrow over something that was easily foreseeable and was permitted to happen anyway.
Anger seems a more appropriate response.
Luckovich provides that anger, with a side order of scorn, accusing legislators of hiding from calls to address the problem because they fear losing the generous contributions of the National Rifle Association.
That linked Open Secrets analysis indicates that, despite the NRA’s recent troubles, it has remained a steadfast supporter of politicians, or, to be more precise, of Republican politicians, donations to Democratic legislators having fallen to zero.
The flow of cash perhaps makes it easier for Espinoza to put a partisan edge on his criticism, but he is correct in that the GOP was quick with the bland thoughts and prayers but has since, at least through its media colleagues, seized upon a detail in the shooter’s lifestyle to absolve easy access to firearms of being a prime mover in the event.
Not that they aren’t sensitive to shootings, mind you, but they’ve already established trans kids as a major cause of the world’s problems and, if they aren’t willing to dwell on one aspect, they are fully prepared to exploit the other.
The lack of protective gun legislation in the United States is obvious to a world in which other countries have reacted to shootings with definite steps to make guns less easily available, a factor Jennings could see from the UK, and to which he adds the concept that it’s open season once again in our nation’s schools, the latest shootings having happened at a Mass marking the first day of classes.
Juxtaposition of the Day
That the children were murdered while in church has caused some commentators to question those who offer prayers as an answer, but the religious issue inevitably enters the conversation anyway.
Benson offers a prayer of such obvious futility as to be blasphemous, particularly since the wording of the headline concedes that school shootings happen over and over again.
There is a significant element in some Protestant sects that true faith requires accepting whatever happens as the will of God, which feels like a Christian twist on Stoicism, and which then requires that you not presume upon the Deity by praying for specific outcomes, which is seen as you impiously suggesting how He ought to make events unfold.
As Jim Morrison explained:
When I was back there in seminary school
There was a person there
Who put forth the proposition
That you can petition the Lord with prayer
Petition the Lord with prayer?
Petition the Lord with prayer?
You cannot petition the Lord with prayer!
But you may find Benson’s approach more acceptable than Ramirez’s suggestion that the victims of school shootings are happy and lucky to be dead.
In Goris’ view of heaven, God hands out a lesson in pragmatic reality to the children who appear before his throne. Better late than never, I suppose.
I don’t know how well Huck’s dark cartoon would reproduce on paper, but that may be secondary to the darkness in childrens’ lives, as they reach out for aid and comfort to an adult world that apparently refuses to believe that there truly is a monster under their beds.
There is a school of child-raising that says you shouldn’t respond to a crying baby at night because it reinforces their calling out to parents. Let them, these adherents counsel, learn to comfort themselves and go to sleep rather than teaching them that you will come when they call.
Unless, like the loving father in Christ’s parable, you’re prepared to make a commitment to always be there for them.
Mike Peterson has posted his "Comic Strip of the Day" column every day since 2010. His opinions are his own, but we welcome comments either agreeing or in opposition.
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