15 Comments
User's avatar
Marianne Clelland's avatar

powerfully written piece! very tragic event and sadly, so common. the genesis of the hate and how you have described, makes it likely we will see this again

Expand full comment
Yvonne McCarthy's avatar

And what kind of society have we become that there are so many like him?

Expand full comment
Susan Whitfield's avatar

Precisely.

Expand full comment
Susan Whitfield's avatar

Silent (guilty) partners in the 'me too' movement? I worked as a church secretary for a very conservative minister, I was 23. I thought he was a bit weird, even crazy as I typed out his sermons. He once tried to 'show me something that he was sure I would like, in his office. I declined, and started looking for another job.

Expand full comment
Jane 53's avatar

That’s creepy!

Expand full comment
Patricia Faye Morris's avatar

Not sure why he did this but thinking of all the men who’ve been silent partners in the Me Too movement wanting retribution.

Expand full comment
Closer to the Edge's avatar

Retribution for the MeToo movement? We don't understand your comment. Can you please elaborate?

Expand full comment
Lynne's avatar

Thank you for choosing not to publish the gunman’s name. Focusing on the victims and their families, rather than giving notoriety to the perpetrator, is a meaningful and responsible decision.

Expand full comment
Mike Feder's avatar

This guy, and what he did, is hardly mentioned by Trump and his bizzaro goon-squad because he's a devoted Trumpster and not some crackpot, unaffiliated "Liberal." They're pretending he didn't exist and that his awful crimes were never committed. (Has Trump called the families of the murdered people--had he called the Governor of Michigan?)

This shitbag was running--as you so perfectly put it--completely on the manic fumes of hate, revenge and murder... Like Trump, he carries a grudge where his heart used to be.

Blaming, nursing a year's-long hatred till it grows into a monster, is always easier than struggling to understand yourself, take responsibility for, and repair your life. We ALL know it--Figuring out how to fix yourself--how to learn and forgive is just about the hardest thing a grown human can do...

It's much easier to remain tantrum-throwing child who imagines that everyone is out to get him.

And that's what Trump is peddling to his army of merch-buying, dim-witted zealots; it's what he's facilitating with his every flatulent utterance and stroke of his black pen: Because he was never celebrated sufficiently as God's gift to humanity, and because, like Shitbag, he only understands revenge, he attempts to destroy everyone and everything.

Hard to actually say a thing like this--but Love is wasted on people like this guy and the rest of the Trumpsters--They devour it like a bag of Big Macs and shit it out... It's very, very hard, to oppose them with peace in your heart-- But, since we don't want a Civil War, the only way left to us is Civil Disobedience. They have all the masks and the guns--not mention the Supreme Court and the entire Republican party; so, like the early Christians, Ghandi and Satyagraha, MLK and the Civil Rights marchers, we have to retain our humanity in the face of the everyday bestiality of Trump and his greedy ghouls... It won't be an easy road, considering that the destruction of Democracy creates so much righteous anger--but it's the only way to get back to the light...

Expand full comment
Suki Herr's avatar

ThankYou.

I want common sense gun legislation moved up on the Democratic Platform.

There is evidence that choice to use gun violence is mostly along one ideological side, but the only reason I mention this is the need for some restraint that I think only the Democrats can produce as legislation.

The reasons for acting out in violence must be addressed, but access to carry out the violence needs to be curtailed.

Expand full comment
Anton Kleinschmidt's avatar

A Dyed in the wool Trumper

Expand full comment
Simon Sez's avatar

They cannot blame the democrats now… like they usually do. Only they have military weapons on civilians’ homes.

We have been occupied by thugs full of hate, bigotry, racism and cruelty. This is what our government promotes,

no surprise that every week a new shooting is in the news.

Unfortunately the guns are pointing in the wrong direction!

Expand full comment
Lisa Paulson's avatar

Shitbag it is. Deservedly so.

Expand full comment
Marjorie's avatar

The wording on his shirt, "The suffering of others is not collateral damage, it’s the point." Pretty much the rallying cry for tRump and his cultists.

Expand full comment
David G's avatar

Many people think gun laws or ownership and use rights are a partisan issue, but this is not the case. AIPAC superpacs and lobbyists fund both sides of the aisle. Just saying. (Sometimes I think they take turns who is for or who is against policy - it might be true; it really doesn't matter what side you voted for)

Expand full comment