The Redundancy of Bad News

I often write by using one train of thought as my introduction and then following up with the next thought, and then the next thought. By the second or third paragraph and many trains of thought have left my station, I finally grab one and hold on. It is as if I have to sift through the confusion swirling inside my brain before I manage to find a point I can focus on.

This post is a perfect example. 

When I woke up this morning after a fitful night of intermittent interruptions to my sleep, I knew I wanted to write about this latest mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas. And now I am hoping to write about the growing redundancy of really bad news on an almost daily basis. And with the ugly occurrences of evil crossing our news screens 24/7 now, many of us have become numb and the death of 22 people is nothing but SSDD ( Same Shit, Different Day).

There is nothing I can say or write that I haven't already written regarding the horror of mass shootings. My first memory of writing about mass shootings was the Virginia Tech mass shooting in 2007 that left 32 people dead. I am as horrified as I was then, but now my horror has become so common place to deal with, all I can do is maybe feel some deep sadness and a twinge of guilt over what I have no clue. All I know is, in a week I will be horrified again by some new catastrophe and Uvalde will begin to fade into my sunset as Buffalo has done since Uvalde.

I so want to write the same boiler plate anguished anger I always have. But I won't. It does nothing to fix the problem. Venting does not make me feel better anymore. And frankly, I think all of us are so weary of this constant barrage of not just bad news, but explosively evil news of humans doing their evil best to ruin all of our days. 

And maybe what I am so very, very heartbroken over is the rising pace of bad news redundancy. We can't catch our breath anymore. Wars, pandemics, mass shootings fill our days now. Is this the future of Life here in the States? Tell you what, if it is a sign of things to come, then I am just happy I am on the down stroke of my time on this tortured rock.

I just took a lunch break. While stuffing a sandwich in my pie hole, I watched and listened to a news interview of Texas State Senator, Roland Gutierrez(D) whose home area is Uvalde ( District 19). His obvious pain and anguish broke through any numbness I was busy erecting to defend myself from the after effects of this tragedy. He lost it and began blubbering and then so was I.

This is all so sad. This is all so hopeless it seems. There are literally no words I can come up with.

Later ................................................

PS

Some facts as reported by Reuters

• Since 2007 there has been 78 mass shootings where three or more people died. 
• In those shootings, 688 people were killed.
• In those shootings, 1117 people were wounded. 
• Our average number of Mass killings  per year is 5.2.

___________________________________

My song pick is a repeat from another time. It is a cover of "Over the Rainbow", by IZ

I dunno, it just seemed somehow appropriate.