Charleston Church Atrocity, and why it matters

Since 10:30pm on Wednesday 17 Jun, I have been following the atrocious unfolding of yet another shooting by someone with fucked up world view against innocents who had no idea it was coming. This piece of scum (I refuse to put his name here. May it be stricken from our collective memory forever.) walked into a house of worship, a haven, a safe zone, an area where people go to relieve themselves for a little while from all of the insanity and confusion that reside outside the doors, and brought with him death, anger, confusion and hatred. He took it upon his small-minded, bigoted, hate-filled self to kill 9 people who had done no harm to anyone and to destroy the lives of countless friends, family members, and other members of the congregation of that church. Never again will they be able to look at what they consider the most sacrosanct room in their lives without thinking, "There is where my loved one died."

It is times like this I almost wish I believed in a heavens, gods, and the afterlife so that there would be a deity by which to damn this scum's eternal soul.

Hatred is ALWAYS a learned behavior. As a parent, I have tried, and hopefully succeeded in teaching my children that NO ONE is to be hated simply for who they are or how they look. Only actions are worthy of hate. Actions are conscious decisions that have real world consequences. A person's actions will define them for good or bad. Actions will show you if someone is worthy of your love and trust or demanding your hatred and disgust.

To those on any side of any political argument who are using this to justify your stance: FUCK YOU. People are dead. A community is shattered. How about we work on restoring some trust? How about we tone down our rhetoric and actually TALK to each other? Can we, just this once, agree that the pain is real and work towards finding a way to heal it? Maybe when the anger and the hatred I have in me right now have subsided a little bit, I will be in a better frame of mind to share my opinion on some of the political and social questions that have been raised by this atrocity (not tragedy, tragedies are accidents. This was intentional).

Right now, all I can think about is how much people in my home state are hurting, and how much they need sympathy, empathy, and good thoughts. Not more arguing, finger-pointing, and derision.

Right now, it is my wife's birthday, so I am going to go finish frosting her cake, then I am going to hug my children and we are going to help her celebrate. This piece of shit has already wasted enough of her day.

RIP:

Senator Clementa Pinckney
Pinckney's sister (name not released at the time of this post)
Tywanza Sanders
Cynthia Hurd Sharonda Coleman-Singleton
And 4 other, as of yet unnamed, victims