Required Reading
Alex’s head is strapped down so he can’t turn away and his eyes are pried open with clamps, so he has no choice to look at films portraying murder, torture and rape.
It’s a harrowing scene and I could never imagine subjecting a fellow human being to that kind of abuse for any reason.
But that was before I started reading Kimberly Garcia’s Twitter feed and now, I’m not so sure.
Kimberly Garcia is the mother of Amerie Jo Garza, one of the 19 children killed—along with two teachers—who were murdered in the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Udavle, Tex. on May 24.
The tweets are excruciating. There is no filter, no commentator sanitizing this woman's agony. Her unimaginable suffering is torn right out of her heart and into her words.
“On May 24th, my daughter received her certificate, took a photo with her, talked for a bit, hugged & kissed her, she told me ‘I love you mommy’ & off she went to her class,” one of tweet reads. “I wish so bad I could turn back time and have one chance to just take her home with me. It’s my fault.”
“When you left earth, so did a piece of me,” another tweet reads.
Several tweets are aimed at local officials and the abysmal police response to the shooting, where over 300 cops waited outside the classrooms for over an hour while the children were being slaughtered.
“To the people who failed my child, and those babies, I’m so glad you have your family. I’m so glad you get to go home back to your children because we don’t. All I have gotten back from that day is her backpack with bullet holes, jacket, & her tiny gold hoop earrings. Not her.”
And then there’s this one that is just devastating.
“I wish it was me and not her.”
Have a Seat
The words are simple and heart-breaking, and they need to be read because they give us a firsthand account of it’s like to lose a loved one to the epidemic of gun violence that grips this country.
The problem is that they’re not being read by the right people—the Second Amendment psychos who oppose any kind of gun reform and the craven politicians who court their votes, knowing full well that their cowardice and shameless lust for power is getting innocent people killed every goddamn day.
There have been at least 532 mass shootings in this blood-soaked nation this year—so far. More than 500 people have died in these mass shootings, with total number of gun deaths pegged at 35,083.
The wrong place is America and the wrong time is now.
Last week, five people—including an off-duty police officer--were gunned down in shooting in Raleigh, N.C. that also left two people injured. Police arrested a 15-year-old suspect.
“Enough,” Joe Biden said in a statement. “We’ve grieved and prayed with too many families who have had to bear the terrible burden of these mass shootings. “Too many families have had spouses, parents, and children taken from them forever.”
Yes, people like Kimberly Garcia, who tweeted “I will always feel just empty” and “I just want my daughter back.”
This particular atrocity came one day after two police officers in Bristol, CT. were killed in an ambush. A third officer was injured.
That same week also saw rightwing radio host and neanderthal scumbag Alex Jones hit with a nearly $1 billion judgement in a lawsuit over his detestable lies about the Sandy Hook shooting in 2012.
Jones called the victims’ family members “crisis actors” and inspired a legion of soulless animals to crawl out of the sewers and cesspools to threaten the dead children’s parents, with some saying they would dig up the bodies to prove the shooting was a hoax.
In my darker moments, I fantasize about giving these freaks and cowards the Ludovico treatment. Strap them in chairs, yank back their eyelids and make them read these tweets.
Force them to witness the autopsies of the victims and listen to the cries of the heart-broken family members. I seriously doubt that it would change their minds.
But it would sure make me feel better.
Comments
Gun violence has skyrocketed. On a seemingly daily basis, more people are being killed, many senselessly. Instead of the method you proposed for the perpetrators, my suggestion would be that they die by the same method as their victims with the same amount of non-mercy shown.
Of course, this is only a thought in my wild imagination as I would never stoop to the level of these killers.
Hi, Dorothy.
These killings bring out the worst in all of us. We'll never get rid of murder, of course, but some kind of sensible gun legislation would make a big difference.
But I haven't anything even resembling "sensible" in this country for a long time.
Stay safe.