A few thoughts on the news-- it isn't good

It's been hard to ignore the horrors in the news. In fact, I haven't ignored them-- I'm just having a really hard time processing how evil people are. The story about the Cornell rape-fest is making my stomach turn, especially since the response given to a reporter's question was that the men involved would not get a "fair shake" and he "feels badly" for them. Agent shooting a man with a five year old child in the car. The proposed televised execution of a man who, admittedly, did a horrifying thing in 2009, but to put a man who is a paraplegic in front of a firing squad? And there is so much more to be horrified by. 

Who the hell are we, as a nation?

How and why are we "celebrating" this violence and evil?

This is not, and should not be, merely an ontological question. It addresses the core of who we are, both individually and as a country. As human beings. It feels like our moral compass has been smashed to unrecognizable shards. 

I'm not advocating for ignoring or condoning illegal activity, not at all. But extreme brutality is not the answer. We've gone to wars over this kind of inhumane treatment of other people, but yet, here we are. This kind of mental, physical, and spiritual bifurcation is not sustainable. Not as a public policy, not as personal values, not as a human community. Yes, the social order must be maintained for people to feel safe; this paradox exists in real time, that in order to be more free, there must be constraints. No one should be pushing for chaos, or anarchy, as a solution to all of the ills of the world. But to cross the line into evil, into a depraved state (feeling bad for gang rapists, for brutal agents, for death-as-public-entertainment) is the work of supreme madness. 

This fever dream existence cannot continue. I pray to God and all the holy saints and angels, to all power in the Universe, and to our common human existence that we can stop before all hell literally breaks loose. 

Stay safe, friends. 

C