This is the second time someone I worked with was murdered by an abuser with a gun. And the reality is, I'm super lucky. My city has been attacked, workplaces of friends and loved ones have been attacked, mass shootings are becoming so commonplace I didn't even think to keep an eye out for victim's names at first.
But I'm lucky. I'm still on that first batch of fingers despite having grown up in the murder capital. Timehop showed me a text from a friend letting me know she was fine after another local mass shooting. So, there have been other near misses for me. But, many folks have been to way more funerals than I have. Some folks used up that first hand last week. Or last year. Or a decade ago.
We have let this happen here in the US. We have decided retroactively that a broad interpretation of the second amendment is the right one. That guns - in the hands of white people - because let's be honest we do not hold the same things true for folks of color - have to be allowed whenever and wherever. Because people who have demonstrated a lack of appropriate boundaries are innocent even though they have actually been proven guilty, and they get to threaten violence with impunity. And no, I don't think it's coincidence that this particular shooter has been mad at the paper for reporting on his harassment for years, but decided this week when our President and others said again that journalists are a danger to us all that yes, this was the week he should kill a bunch of people.
Certainly no one can expect the ways that people will carry out their words. But let's stop pretending this is an unexpected result. Our President has been calling for violence from the day he announced he was running for office. He has intentionally made an enemy of the press so that anything bad said about him is suspect.
So a community paper lost a close to quarter of it's staff. And all those staff has friends and family.
This is not okay. And I'm going to keep working to change it.
