Not What, Why? 5 Questions and A Prayer

 

What is this world coming to?

It’s a question asked colloquially, mostly rhetorically, often accompanied with a heavy sigh, as we shake our heads ruefully.

The world answered, definitively and without question, once again.

This time it answered at a nightclub early Sunday morning in Orlando, Florida.

The world has been answering this way a lot.

Maybe it’s time to start asking a different question.

Why is the world coming to this?

And maybe it’s time to stop asking rhetorically.

Because 49 innocent, joyful, singing, dancing souls didn’t have to die.

And the countless, blameless people mourning them throughout our nation and the world today don’t have to be in mourning.

The man who murdered was a private citizen with a legally purchased assault rifle and known to the FBI. He was investigated not once, but twice, for boasting and bragging of his interests and associations not only to known terrorists organizations, but that he hoped to die as a martyr to the terrorist cause.

So.

Let’s start there. With that one paragraph.

Because within that one paragraph are some possible leads to accountability and answers.

And, with accountability and answers, maybe we can get to the solutions.

And not one more fucking time.

A Prayer

I’ve lost people I’ve loved and cherished to death and each time, it felt like and left a hole in my heart. 49 human beings with families, friends, friends of those families, friends of those friends. 49 people with acquaintances, co-workers, neighbors, room-mates. 49 people someone knew from church, from the grocery store, groomed their dog, mowed their lawn, babysat their kids. 49 people who was someone’s best-friend, someone’s lover, someone’s blessing, someone’s soul mate, someone’s one true thing…so many, many punched-out hearts. I pray, I wish, I hope for comfort and peace in the blessed memory of the 49 beloved who dance in another place. And for the quick and complete recovery of those who were hurt in all the ways one can be hurt by such horror. My heart is with all of your hearts.

5 Questions

But my rage would like some answers. Why are there no policies and procedures in place at the Federal Bureau of Investigations to ensure someone with not one, but two investigations, does not remain under some sort of surveillance?  Why was an assault rifle sold to a man on an FBI Watch List? Why are gun sellers not lawfully responsible for selling weapons to individuals who then proceed to use them as weapons of mass murder? (We have laws holding bartenders responsible for selling alcohol to over-imbibed patrons. Why do we not hold gun sellers accountable for their deadly weapons?) Why has this country not taken a single legislative step to ban assault weapons since the last time one was used to publicly mass murder innocent people?

My rage is asking.

And it’s not asking rhetorically.

“And now the bodies are piled so high,
 you couldn’t hide them if you tried.” 

-The Elected  “Go for the Throat”