by Cat Stoothoff
They like to say “he acted alone”
this mantra more repetitive than these horrific acts themselves,
as if this was a singular occurrence coming out of nowhere,
as if using that phrase somehow absolves them of their guilt, their glaring personal co-responsibility, their obvious co-conspirator status.
he may have been the only one physically walking into that space carrying death machines that day with the intent to kill, but the multitude walking with him closer than his shadow were there, too.
he
did
NOT
act
ALONE
he was acting with the full support of our ineffectual corrupt government officials who are profiting off these fears and these machines and these deaths,
he was acting with the full support of every negligent “legislator” and politician and “leader” who only wants access to diverse books and truthful education and women’s choices and voting to be “well regulated” and conveniently ignores that phrase in that most horrid of amendments,
and every cowardly “legislator” and politician and “leader” who refuses to work to ensure passage of life-saving gun laws,
and every greedy “legislator” and politician and “leader” who lines their pockets with blood money and then passes laws to weaken the flimsy gun laws already present,
and every ignorant “legislator” and politician and “leader” who pretends nothing can be done, that laws and preventative measures won’t work, as if they’ve never worked anywhere else,
and every inhumane “legislator” and politician and “leader” who utters the meaningless “thoughts and prayers” phrase or any variation thereof and refuses meaningful action,
and every hypocritical “legislator” and politician and “leader” who denounces these acts but keeps the money rolling in, as if they aren’t becoming those very same terrorists themselves.
he
did
NOT
act
ALONE
he acted with the full support of every private person who did the same as the “legislators,” politicians, “leaders”,
who refused to stop the bloodshed and stand up to the lie of the safety of a gun,
who refuse to use their voice to vote with their wallets and with their ballots and with their words and their actions, against merchants of death wherever they are to be found,
who refuse to value the lives of their own children over their falsely perceived “right” to own a murder weapon,
who aren’t actually pro-LIFE in any regard but especially not when it looks like humans of any age and a different skin color being fed unceasingly, lifeless, in to their insatiable and bottomless appetite for guns and hate and ignorance and greed.
he
did
NOT
act
ALONE
and every single one of us who profess faith in the God who is love and can’t find it in our hearts, our minds, our bodies to act according to that example and mandate;
and every single one of us who blindly, ignorantly uses that name in vain every single time we connect it to “self-defence” and violence and hate and greed and death and think that we are blessed and right and correct for doing that;
and every single one of us who doesn’t have those hard conversations or make those hard decisions to value life over death, children over guns;
who refuse to speak up and demand change until it becomes our new reality.
he
did
NOT
act
ALONE
he acted with the full support and encouragement of every person, dead or alive, who carried out terror attacks before him on these lands or lands in other places in this century or ones past, on larger or smaller scales,
and every person inspired by him who will be next in line to do the same,
he
did
NOT
act
ALONE
he acted with the full and eager support of every media source that promotes the unrestricted acquisition of death machines, and that praises these acquisitions through their constant coverage of those who carry out these attacks,
and every media source that condemns this violence in one breath and in the very next glamorizes the use of death machines abroad and the songs sung about those death machines and their effectiveness,
as if death abroad by any means is somehow less horrible than death at home by the same means,
as if a machine designed for the singular purpose and intent of killing is less repulsive in an overseas community serving as a battlefield than in a local grocery store or grade school classroom,
as if the deaths are somehow different.
he
did
NOT
act
he acted with the full support of the all-pervasive and always deadly terror network of white supremacy
and all their lies and manipulations and distortions and fears
and all their vile racist ignorant venom that inspires many of these terrorist attacks.
he
did
NOT
act
ALONE
he joined the terror network that is the weapons industry that promotes unfettered access to as many death machines as you can want for any reason you want with as little oversight and common sense as you want.
he acted with the full and open support of every gun manufacturer and lobbyist and member and seller and buyer who fights for guns for all and death for all, and freedom and life and liberty for none.
he acted in complete blindness and ignorance to the fraud they all committed against him, with him.
he
was
NOT
ALONE
in his perversely distorted views, his deadly goals, his uninhibited destruction, his deluded idea of “freedom”, his violent death,
in his selfish belief of the worth of his life over theirs,
in thinking, foolishly, that a murder weapon can ensure one’s freedom, one’s safety, one’s power and control, one’s immortality,
in choosing bondage and slavery to death and their machines over actual freedom from and life.
he
was
NOT
ALONE
when he walked into that grocery store, that place of worship, that school, that workplace, that crowd,
an agent of death and evil
ushered in by apathy and complacence
armed with ignorance and fear
surrounded by a cloud of witnesses
urging him on
feeding him lies and hate.
he
was
NOT
ALONE
in his delusions and distortions,
in his anger and fear,
in his thoughts and prayers and actual actions,
in his brokenness and pain,
in his death.
he
is
NOT
ALONE
in the shame that is his
it is not his alone;
in the responsibility that is his
it is not his alone;
in the ignorance that drove him there,
it is not his alone;
in the lives he took
their blood is not on his hands alone.
he
was
NOT
ALONE
and the next time,
he
and his
shadow
will
NOT
be
ALONE
either
and the next time,
and the next time,
and the next time . . .
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