Dark Night

--Sleepwalking in America

The first and principal benefit
caused by the arid and dark night of contemplation:
the knowledge of oneself and of one’s misery
--Dark Night of the Soul, St. John of the Cross

--Have you met the devil?
I want to meet him too.
--Why do you want to do that?
--I want to ask him about God.
He must know. He, if anyone
--Seventh Seal (1957)
_________________

Sunday Homily: Propriety

It may seem an odd topic for RangerAgainstWar, but we, your humble writers, are often in the process of asking ourselves how to get it right, this appropriate living - behavior thing. Beyond identifying some of the problems, we are not sure.

The recent Aurora, Colorado shootings at the premiere of "The Dark Knight Rises" brought propriety back as a topic. Needless to say, another senseless, meaningless performance from a disenfranchised, perhaps deranged individual, and impropriety is not the word for such an unspeakable action. There is not much to say beyond another soon to be delivered dissection of another 15-second-murderous-famer by an obsequious press in collusion with a nation which does not really want to know why these senseless acts are now occurring with predictable regularity.

The thing that is improprietous is President Obama's visit to the Aurora Hospital which currently houses ten of the survivors. Colorado Governor John Hickenloope and Aurora Mayor Steve Hogan should be on-site. But for Obama, who interrupted his campaigning in Florida, this smacks of campaign flourish. The President should not glorify every failure via his presence, lending a gravitas which should be saved for events of national import. This is just another shooting event du jour.

We do not mean to be priggish, but a message sent from the White House would have sent the correct tone. Does our President intend to run hither and thither to address every heinous act? Obama is neither a goodwill ambassador nor a triage nurse.

What advice from the Gospels do we have on how to treat our fellows? The Golden Rule, the 10 Commandments and the Good Samaritan are a start, but these offer advice to the individual navigating his world, and do not need the reinforcement of a secular president. If they don't work prima facia, then perhaps they don't work.

The Aurora shooting occurred at the midnight premiere of the third installment in the Batman trilogy, The Dark Knight. The series has been hailed as a masterful depiction of the comic book characters, but it is far from light entertainment; the films raise sadism and violence to an art form, or so the aficionados say. One of the dead is a six-year old girl, her mother still in intensive care.

Who would take a young child to the midnight showing of such a gore fest? That is a story of societal malfunction in itself. The UK Telegraph ran a piece in '08 addressing the issue (Our attitude to violence is beyond a joke as new Batman film, The Dark Knight, shows).

We feel Mr. Obama has made several missteps in his capacity as Chief Executive of the United States. Several involve giving lie to the fact that we are a post-racial nation, as the pundits so glowingly declaimed after his election.

[1] Obama inappropriately stepped into the Cambridge, Massachusetts arrest of black scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr. by saying the police department "acted stupidly", and later holding a "beer summit" at the White House between the arresting officer and Gates.

[2] Next, in the Sanford, Florida incident of a Stand Your Ground killing of a 17-year-old black male by a 28-year-old Latino male, Obama chose to say of victim "If I had a son he'd look like Trayvon", hopelessly biasing the adjudication of the case.

[3] Now, Obama is visiting Aurora following another mindless mass shooting. It is surely simply a photo-op in a contentious campaign.

We have some serious issues as a nation, but these lie underneath the matters of State and are not things our President should be addressing, nor is he able to address them.

As one of our readers recently commented, if we need to talk about race, let's talk about race; if guns, then let's talk about guns.

Why must we behave disingenuously, taking the long way about the barn, and never solving anything anyway? Americans may be loud and brash, but the bravado is shrill as it lacks self-awareness.

It Didn't Have to Happen

Yes, I'd give the Devil benefit of law,
for my own safety's sake!
--A Man for All Seasons (1966)

One of these mornings
You're going to rise up singing
Then you'll spread your wings
And you'll take to the sky
--Summertime,
George and Ira Gershwin
____________________

The Trayvon Martin - George Zimmerman media circus continues, with Mr. Zimmerman's bail for a charge of second degree murder set at $1 Million. As expected, the social media lynch mob is ramping up again, too. President Obama mistakenly stepped in, biasing the case when he said, "When I think about this boy, I think about my own kids." What a mess.

Why wouldn't Obama think about Zimmerman, who would be the more logical cognate. Both Obama and Zimmerman are mixed race; both prioritize community action. Zimmerman had mentored black children in his development (though the parents are too afraid to speak out in his defense.) Then the prosecutor in the Martin shooting said, "This did not have to happen."

While she is correct -- the event did not need to go down the way it did -- that is a personal judgement, not a legal yardstick. It does not matter how it ended but rather, was it within the framework of the law. It does not matter what should have happened, but rather, what did. That is the basis of legal action.

The Trayvon Martin ™ incident is just another sad case in the annals of random death in the United States. Why do people march over this death, yet cheerfully accept daily Predator and Hellfire strikes around the world daily? Why do those who protest have no problems with a Chicago murder rate outstripping that of Kabul, up 60% this year, primarily involving young black men?

Why should Martin's death not have happened, yet dead bodies in Yemen courtesy of U.S. guided missiles concern us not at all?

All life is of equal value, and if we do not accept this, then we must accede to totalitarian rule. It is odd that America calls Obamacare "socialism", yet raises nary a whimper at real totalitarian actions which threaten our core beliefs and values.

Socialism is the supposed bogeyman, while our entire internal security apparatus puts KGB efforts to shame. We operate under totalitarian security yet get squeamish over socialized medicine.

What are we missing here?

[This being summer, we are mining the archives for some good also-rans that did not get play, some never-rans, and might try out some new things. We are in the armpit of FLA and do not boat or beach, so we're just plum tuckered out. Languor is the mood. Mojitos and Gin and Tonic wind down the day -- and no HFCS in that tonic, please!

This is not to say new thoughts will stop flowing; they will.]