Oh, Monday... Really?

[lydamorehouse]

 Yeah, so, talk about awkward.

There I was, scrolling down Facebook, like you do, reading up on my various friends lives. One of my friends noted that she feels very old to have discovered that a concert she wants to go to is sponsored by the AARP.  I'd been noticing that, too, and--because I have this very nerd-like habit of thinking about my reply two seconds later, I scrolled back to drop my comment, right?

ONLY, I missed.

I ended up typing this lighthearted thing about growing old and having our favorite bands sponsored by the AARP on another friend's comment on the TEXAS SHOOTING.  

O.M.G.

The best part is that I didn't even notice I'd done it until I got this very confused, "Is this related?" note.  Luckily, that friend noticed almost immediately so we had a very civil and apologetic back and forth via PM, because 'Holy Inappropriate, Batman," and she deleted my comment thread with my blessing.  In our PM, she was very sweet at said, "I even Googled AARP + Texas shooting" in case there was some connection I was missing, and I'm like, "Oh my god, no. I'm just an idiot!"  

But, you know, it was a nice counterpoint to my previous rant about people on the Internet. There is, unfortunately, a scenario out there where I did something like that on someone else's feed and they went, pardon the pun, ballistic on me. I mean, it seemed so CLEARLY out of place, but people have a tendency, as I've talked about, to assume the worst in this digital age, so it was, ultimately, a civil (if initially confused) interaction. 

I don't even know what to say about the Texas shooting other than to note what I did on another friend's comment about it, which is that I knew instantly that the shooter was white because of how it was reported. When the incident happened in New York, I heard "terrorist attack" before I heard any of the details.  I didn't hear "Nine run over in bicycle lane in New York," I heard the blanket, "terrorist attack in New York."  Only later did I learn any salient details. I had to follow the headline to find out that the guy was in a van, running people over. 

With Texas, it was the opposite, "25 dead in Texas shooting." That was how this was initially reported. Given the lack of "terrorist" designation, I knew the shooter was white. Though, in the opposite of the New York reporting, I had to go to the papers to confirm my suspicion of the race/country of origin/presumed religion of the shooter.

There's so much wrong with this, America.

Also, how many people have white men with guns killed in the last 90 days?  Hardly anyone even talks about the guy who shot up the Walmart  in Colorado.  I guess it's not newsworthy since he only killed three people?  Jesus wept.

Comments

[wild_irises]

First of all, I appreciate how you connect your Facebook mistake to your critiques of others; that's big-hearted.

Second, what I haven't seen in the news anywhere and had to determine by looking at photographs was that the church that was shot up had a white congregation. If a black man had shot up a black church ...

Nope. There's nothing to say. Except that if there's an incident like this so frequently, it will always be "too soon to talk about gun control." *deep sigh*

[lydamorehouse]

Right? I really DON'T know what it's going to take to get gun control. We've had children killed, white county music fans, white church goers... oh, yeah, even politicians have been shot. I just don't see how much more is needed. I haven't Snopes'd this yet, but I saw someone on Facebook posting that Wisconsin just passed a law making it okay for toddlers to have hunting rifles with their parents' okay? I mean, that SOUNDS like that can't be real, but I have stopped having the ability to distinguish from Onion articles and real life these days, especially given the famous Onion article headline: There's no way to prevent mass shootings, says only country where this happens.

Thinking about it, I might I heard that the church was Baptist, but, yeah, it was only until pictures came out did I also realize that the church seemed to be predominantly white. And, yeah, it would have been labeled, what "black extremist shoots up church" or something like that if the shooter had been black...

It's as predictable as it is disheartening.

[offcntr]

I heard about the Wisconsin thing on NPR. In the past, you had to be 14 to get a hunting licence, 12 if you hunt with a parent. The proposed--and, I guess, passed--law would remove the bottom limit. Anyone would be permitted to carry a gun in the presence of a "parent or mentor." Which I guess would include toddlers. *sigh*

I miss my formerly sane, progressive home state.