I have thoughts on all this “senseless” violence

In the past week, a man tried to go to a church in Kentucky where predominantly black worshipers gather to pray. He was thwarted and ended up in a Kroger parking lot, killing 2 black people – one right in front of his grandson, out for the day, enjoying their lives. He was witnessed telling another white person who stood by in shock not to worry – “whites don’t shoot whites”.

Bombs were mailed in multiple assassination attempts – on 2 former Presidents, a former VP, a former Sec of State, Senator, and First Lady, several sitting Senators, and a sitting Congresswoman, a Democratic party donor, a former CIA director, and to a prominent media outlet. The bombs all attempted to implicate another former Congresswoman. When caught, the perpetrator was a Trump supporter, his van covered in pro-Trump stickers and anti-Democrat stickers (including one of Hillary Clinton in the cross-hairs of a rifle). His social media was filled with hate and video of him at Trump rallies.

Then on Saturday morning, a gunman went to a synagogue in Pittsburgh and killed 11 people and wounded several more, in another hate-filled crime against a minority group practicing their religion. We Jews are sadly used to being persecuted. But this was something more – the majority of those killed were elderly Jews – who had lived through the Holocaust – whether they lived in Europe or not, being alive during the 30s and 40s is indelibly carved into their psyche. They lived through that terrible time in human history, only to be slaughtered in their house off worship by a rabid anti-Semite who wrote on a far-right social media site – “HIAS likes to bring in invaders that kill our people” and “Screw your optics. I’m going in”. And then proceeded to do just that.

And believe me, I’m trying to be objective because this week was terrible for everyone. Everyone except for the hate filled far right, led by our illustrious president, Donald Trump. The common thread through all of these heinous crimes? Hate.

And yet, all I heard all week was sorrow at the senseless violence.

Why do we call it senseless? It implies that we don’t know what caused these crimes or how to fix the problem.

We know what caused these crimes. Hate. Hate and the acceptance it has in the US and globally. Hate that is espoused by the president and vice president. By senators and congressmen. By everyone who suggests that we need to look at “both sides”, implying a false equivalence of criticism against an ever-increasingly authoritarian government vs support for killing, imprisoning, and physically assaulting one’s political adversaries and other marginalized groups.

That equivalence is just flat out bullshit. And I truly hope these people are still alive when their names are enshrined in the history books next to Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Assad, Pinochet, Hussein, and so many others. I hope they have to explain themselves to their grandchildren and their great grandchildren how they villainized and mocked refugees, the underserved, the poor, the disabled, minorities, women, victims of sexual assault, those unfortunate enough not to be born into power.

Calling this violence and these deaths senseless implies we don’t understand that this hate-filled rhetoric and public policy is driving and actively encouraging divisiveness and violence. When a  candidate for president of the United States of America tells a crowd he’ll gladly pay their attorney fees if they get arrested for assaulting protesters. When the president actively tears at the fabric of our democracy, aided and abetted by a Congress so enthralled with power and an ideological agenda that they are willing to sacrifice our democracy to get it. When the president uses terminology that harkens back to the time of a German dictator – using the politics of fear to drive and stoke anger among his base at those who would fight for this democracy of ours.

Calling it senseless means we don’t understand that a fascination with guns and a fear of change drive this hatred. A refusal to fund public education and to teach critical thinking coupled with a trend toward home and parochial schooling – teaching fear and blind obedience to the next generation so they have no foundation on which to challenge the status quo. An acceptance of guns as an anger management tool, and a fear of “big government” – but only when that government is promoting the general welfare of the nation – no need to fear when it supports their own agenda of suppressing free speech, bodily autonomy for women, free exercise of religion and of the people to criticize their government (oh, it’s fine to do that when Democrats are in power, but surely not when Republicans control it all!).

Calling it senseless means we don’t understand that our country has a long history of violence against minorities – black, brown, and all colors under the sun with the exception of lily white. It means we don’t understand our history of stoking fear of immigrants and refugees, be they Chinese, Irish, Jewish, Mexican, Central American, Middle Eastern or any other nationality or religion other than white Christian Anglo-Europeans. It means we don’t acknowledge our own culpability in terrorism of Native Americans and Blacks.

Calling it senseless means we don’t understand that those in power are systematically dismantling our functional government. Putting into power at the helm of each agency those with the desire to demolish that with which they are entrusted. Allowing those who put greed before health and the environment and our ecosystems and our very existence. Who put greed and regressionism before progress and technology. Who put their own personal gain before the survival of our planet.

And yet we do understand all of that. And we understand how to fix it. We understand that in order form a more perfect union, there is no place in this country and this world for white supremacy. No place for Stand Your Ground. No place for defunding of public education. No place for rampant hatred fueled by fear. No place for curriculums that abandon critical thinking skills and expanded world views. No place for voter suppression. No place for troops at the border to drive away refugees. No place for willful and mean-spirited separation of families. No place for deportation of law-abiding citizens, veterans, and immigrants. No place for anti-Semitism. No place for institutionalized racism. No place for emboldened Nazis. No place for AR-15s and permitless and background-checkless gun ownership. No place for domestic violence. No place for misogyny. No place for dismantling our government. No place for the demolition of the social construct. No place for ideological court-packing. No place for Citizens United. No place for PACs. No place for outrageous amounts of money in politics. For buying politicians. For selling the American people in trade for money, power and greed.

No place for silence. Because silence = complicity.  And there is no place for complicity.

Acknowledging we can fix these things means that these deaths and this terrorism aren’t senseless. Completely unnecessary? Yes. Utterly horrific? Yes. Indescribably painful? Yes. But senseless? Oh no.

If you also want to fix this, you can participate in the solution. Vote. Vote these horrible people out of office. Don’t cry about senseless violence. Fix it.