All of my heroes busted their guns

I wasn't so cynical when I was young.  When someone was presented as a hero, I just absorbed that shit.  That being said, all of my heroes had one thing in common, they were itching to kill something.

There was something so manly about shooting a gunslinger down in the street, beating and alien until his fluorescent green blood gushed into the jungle or showing Cobra commandos that freedom would be protected at all cost and only blood is accepted as payment.  My man Darkwing Duck didn't kill anybody, but you can't come much harder than "Suck gas, evildoers!"  That shit is gangster!

That's what heroes did.  Kick ass and take names.  Fast forward to today and when I think of heroes I think of 1) Claire, from 'Heroes', my irrational young white girl crush (did you see her in that cheerleader uniform?) and 2)  A white dude coming to kick some ass.  Respect to my man, Carl Weathers.  You were a bit of a jerk in the 1st two 'Rocky' movies, but you came around.  'Action Jackson' is still one of my favorite movies of all time, but aren't real heroes white men?

I watched Jack Bauer blast Dana Shaw and give her a couple more bullets for good measure and my initial thought...'That's what that lying bitch gets'.  Later, I kinda felt bad, I mean, that's 'Star Buck' from 'Battle Star Galactica'!

But heroes don't watch basic cable dramas and confuse actresses with the characters they are playing.  They give parting gifts coated in Teflon.  It made me think, how did I get so desensitized to the idea of killing people?

I live in a time where people in Chicago are shooting each other by the dozens and I openly recognize the tragedy of the situation but still, somewhere inside of me I still think there are plenty of reasons to put a bullet in somebody's ass.  I really think it goes back to those days, long ago when Clint Eastwood would blow a hole in somebody's chest and puff on his cigar in celebration.

There is piece of me that will label you a 'bad guy' and therefore forget you are a human being.  The same thing applies when we hear about all of those dead 'Taliban' in Afghanistan and those brothers getting ready to cook in those Texas electric chairs.

Desperate people sometimes do desperate things and that is no reason to blow them away.  Redefining 'bad guys' means I also have to redefine 'hero'.  Benazir Bhuto was a hero.  Gandhi was a hero.  Malcolm X was a hero.  Unfortunately two of them were gunned down by 'bad guys', ironic.  (Correction, somebody shot at Benazir, then they blew her ass up.)

When the 'good guys' bust their guns, I guess the 'bad guys' have no choice but to bust back.  The cycle of gun violence is vicious one.

When rappers brag about gun busting, they see themselves as the heroes because busting guns is what heroes do.  The losers are the ones that forget to duck.  Sad because we can't all agree on whose the hero.  Anybody shoot at me, I label the bad guy.  I don't care if its Waka Flocka Flame or some rookine cop out on patrol.  I'm a progressive thinker like that.  I know how to filter my media now.

Today's media isn't much better that it was when I grew up.  The guy from 'The Mentalist' doesn't carry a gun but he has mad backup... which is good.  I'm pretty sure I'd kick his ass just for the role he did in 'Something New' (Man that movie was stupid).  But that is off the point.  Everybody else blasts they steel and until we actively counter that ideology, expect people in Chicago to keep on plugging away at each other. 

There is something manly about being willing to kill somebody.   As long as that is the only way we teach people to be strong men, that's how it's going to be.