Black Friday comes two days early
‘Murica!
“No more than 10 people have died” read an early report late Tuesday on a mass shooting in Chesapeake, Virginia, a suburb of Norfolk. No motive is known at this time. The shooting rampage took place at a Walmart on Battlefield Blvd. (You read that right.)
Updated reports this morning say “at least six” died including the gunman, reportedly a Walmart employee who took his own life. So, no more than 10 still holds. A local hospital is treating four (or five) victims whose injuries have not been reported.
It’s how patriotic Americans these days celebrate Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. With lite mass murder. Just as our sainted Founders intended.
The drafters of the Second Amendment are rolling in their graves over not having apended “thoughts and prayers” to it.
The late “Christmas tree lady” lived nearby in the historic William Jennings Bryan House. She kept Christmas trees in almost every room. Each had a theme. And theme ornaments. Given the opportunity, she would expound for hours how she came by behind Each And Every One.
This morning, I can’t help wondering if she might have found room for one more tree with ornaments memorializing America’s most celebrated mass killings. It’s a holiday tradition.
I’m sure our hearts go out to the wounded and to the victims’ families. But Americans’ bottomless capacity to tolerate this shit — because Freedom! — has exhausted my capacity to maintain my cool.