The burn-out era

The burn-out era

by digby

Mark Follman (who, along with the rest of the Mother Jones crew has done an incredible job compiling the data about America’s mass murders) prints a letter from a survivor of a mass shooting in Tennessee a couple of years ago:

Mr. Follman:

I read your article about mass murders and spree killings in the U.S. I’m a survivor of one which you didn’t list. On Sunday morning, July 27, 2008, at Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church, Knoxville Tennessee, Jim Adkisson walked into my church with 70 shotgun shells and opened fire. He killed 2 and injured 7. The only reason he stopped firing was that the gun jammed after the 3rd shot. He was tackled by retired history professor Dr. John Bohstedt.

Maybe the low death toll keeps this incident off the list.

However, I noticed something recently in the news which struck home. Discussion about the shooting in Aurora Colorado has included several people saying “we’ll never forget.” Yet here in Knoxville, I’ve been in more than one circumstance when the subject has come up, and someone will say “oh yeah, I do remember that” as if it’s something that happened a long time ago in a galaxy far far away.

Maybe because I was there, my perspective is a little different. The fact that the anniversary is coming up may be why I’m thinking about it right now.

Anyway, just my opinion, the TVUUC incident might belong on your list.

Best wishes,

William Dunklin
Knoxville, Tennessee

That was the one in which the guy did it because he hated all liberals. (It was a UCC church.)

This depresses me almost as much as the shootings themselves, although I understand the psychology. Life has to go on. But damn, even in the places where his happens I guess it’s now just one of those things. Nothing to be done.

I fear this cultural paralysis much more than I fear the political gridlock. Our whole society seems to be burned out, apathetic and tired. I don’t think anything good will come of that.

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