Boston, Bombs, Guns and Mexicans

I feel for those people in Boston.  As cynical as I am, I still feel for people that get killed or maimed for no good reason.  That being said, you can’t let your willingness to sympathize get in the way of your willingness to use your head.  That in mind there are two things that really bother me about this Boston bombing.

First of all, before the suspects were identified, the way that the news outlets kept posing the question about whether or not the terrorist was foreign or domestic was appalling.  It was so upsetting because it was really coded language asking if the terrorist was a crazed Arab or crazed White man.  I spent 2 days yelling “What’s the fucking difference?”  If they wanted to know what kind of terrorist they were dealing with, the answer was obvious.  It was the kind of terrorist that blows people up.  That’s all they needed to know but of course, rationality isn’t always the American way. 

Racism is the American way.  In the aftermath of the bombings, a Saudi Arabian man was subdued by a citizen and taken into custody.  Why, you ask?  Because he was running away… from a bombing… like everyone else.  The media was clamoring to affirm white bread America’s sense of being worthy of hatred from the outside world.  Then came a bit of a curveball; White Muslims. 

I know the news will go and tell you that they aren’t white, they’re Chechen.  Well, as an average nigga on the street, let me tell you, then niggas is White.  Don’t believe the hype. 

The speed at which White folks can distance themselves from their bad eggs is astounding.  They will start talking about mental health, and video games and movies and never say a word about the endemic violence perpetrated by White, mainstream American culture. 

That upset me a bit, but what really pissed me off came from my old friends on Capitol Hill. 

After Newtown, after the Aurora theatre tragedy, after Gabby Giffords took one to the head and after Virginia Tech, the US Senate decided to vote down every bit of gun control legislation they could get their NRA bought, blood soaked, evil hands on.

Three people died in Boston, many more were maimed and my heart goes out to each and every one of those victims.  However there were 3 fatalities in Boston on that terrible day.  This year, literally 10,000 times more people will die from gun violence.  We turned to our lawmakers to help in this American disaster and what did they do?  Pass a bill that will keep anyone from making a list of gun owners.

Take time to digest this.  As they were voting to prevent the registration of gun ownership, they were working on legislation to keep better track of immigrants…

You mean to tell me that Mexicans are more dangerous than assault rifles?

I haven’t ever heard of someone catching a stray bullet from an unregistered Mexican or somebody driving down the street and dropping off Mexicans at a rival gang.

And for all you people that want to argue rights, did you happen to notice that the Boston PD instituted marshal law for 2 days?  I mean, you could also argue that treating Mexicans as second class citizens for crossing an imaginary line is against their human rights but let’s just stick with the obvious. 

You do not have the right to be a danger to your fellow citizens, just as they don’t have the right to endanger you.  That means no assault rifles, no high capacity magazines and no crazed young men taking perfectly legal guns into public locations and blasting away.

Then again, according to the Senate, perhaps that isn’t that much of a problem.  Perhaps the American way is not only to be free from terrorism but also be free to terrorize.  Hell, we terrorize the rest of the world; I guess we might as well get each other in on the action.

Ah, well.  I guess that’s what happens when you live in a country built on violence and watch corporate controlled media.   You get outraged.  Outrage is better than being shot or having your leg blown off and neither of those things has happened to me... yet.