ORLANDO

This past weekend, mass gun violence was unleashed yet again. This time in Orlando, in a crowded night club. Something like 50 people, fellow human beings, murdered and an equal number injured by one extremist psychopath, armed with an assault rifle.  The most casualties in a single gun incident in our nation’s history.

The cowardly evil this time was directed toward our human brothers and sisters, who happen to be lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, or transgender.   We are all diminished by living in a nation that harbors so much hatred.

There is plenty of blame to go around. The political ghouls that shill for the gun industry deserve a significant share of the blame and revulsion.   Their ongoing intransigence, despite the accumulation of deadly gun massacres,  is a result of a horribly corrupted and dysfunctional political system, whose allegiance is not with voters, but instead with big business, corrupt bankers, and self-absorbed billionaires.  But, in the end, we all share the guilt, as long as we remain indignant, yet unwilling to demand the cultural level reset we so desperately need.

In the world we wish for,   an inclusive patchwork of humanity demands a society that is gender equal, economically fair, and respectful of nature.  It has to start at the grass roots, with all facets of humanity standing together for transparency and accountability in our political system.

Whatever steps we take to deal with the ongoing plague of gun violence, they must first be planted in policy and law by elected politicians, who put the common good ahead of power and profit.