OFF THE PAGE WITH RAYMOND ATKINS

Change of Plans

I have changed my plan today. If you are a man of a certain age, or if you are married to one or just know one, then you realize that the changing of a plan is no small matter. Plans once made are the bones of existence. They provide structure and purpose, and they are not to be discarded on a whim. My plan today was to repaint the porch floor. We are having something called Porchfest up here in my neighborhood in a couple of weeks, and I don’t want total strangers to think that I don’t take care of my business. It's an old guy thing, and I can’t help it. So I removed all the porch furniture, and I bought the paint—which is now $50 per gallon, and thanks for that, Tariff Boy—and I laid out my painting gear so that I could get out of bed this morning, have a cup of coffee, and get to it.

Then I began reading about the assassination of Charlie Kirk, and that whole situation bothered me to such an extent that I am writing this instead. Don’t worry. When I finish, I will begin the planning process for tomorrow. As you may know, a plan can be postponed but never canceled outright. 

When I first started seeing posts about Charlie Kirk, I have to admit that I had no idea who he was. This is not surprising for me, because he was a rising Right-wing Conservative Christian media star, and as a Left-wing bleeding-heart baby-killing trans-loving Communist-or-at-the-very-least-Socialist Liberal American, I would drive off the road and into the ditch to avoid listening to such. But, since the hue and cry over Charlie was so pervasive, I did some research, and the opinions about him seemed to fall into one of two categories. About half of the internet believed that he was the little brother of Jesus sent here from on high to bring us all back to God, and the other half seemed to think that he was a nasty little shit who reaped what he had sown. There was no middle ground that I could find. Keep this fact in mind. It is important. 

Before I go any further, let me tell you my position on his assassination. It was yet another of the non-stop daily horrors that we as Americans continue to face in these, the latter days of the American Dream. It was a senseless tragedy in a sea of senseless tragedies brought about by anger, hatred, hopelessness, and easy access to the means of destruction. In this country, around 50,000 people per year die from gun violence. 50,000 people per year. This is an appalling number, but if you need it put into perspective, I will. Every single year, about as many people—men, women, and children—are killed in this country as were Americans killed during the entire Vietnam War (1955-1975).

You might be thinking at this point that I am going to talk about gun control, but I’m not. There is no point. We will NEVER have meaningful gun restrictions in this country. Too many people love their guns too much. Too many politicians have been bought and paid for. Too much money is at stake. Too many Christians have tied guns to Jesus somehow, which is a connection I just can’t see no matter how much I squint. It is a sickness with no cure, I am afraid, a cancer that will eventually wipe us out as a unified country. I have this image in my mind of the last two Americans facing off with each other. One shoots the other, and then there is one. The sole survivor then gets depressed because he has no one to talk to and subsequently shoots himself. And then there are none.

So for now we will have to rely on that old chestnut, thoughts and prayers, which if we are honest is not a very effective method of keeping people alive. On average, 140 Americans find themselves on the wrong end of a gun every single day. After the obligatory thoughts and prayers are sent into the ether, the next day another 140 souls are sent to their rewards. And on and on and on, day after day. So clearly thoughts and prayers don’t work, but I am certain they are a comfort to the survivors of any particular shooting as they look at the casket—most likely a closed one—filled by their child, or their husband, or their wife.

If you go to the Post Office today, you will see that the flag is at half-mast. This posthumous honor is being paid to Charlie Kirk, and I have no problem with this. We should respect the dead when possible. Trump was quick to bestow this honor because in the Kirk assassination he saw an opportunity to fan the flames of outrage under his MAGAs by giving them a visible symbol. My issue with the flag has to do with the other 33,000 Americans who have died by gun violence since Trump took office this time on January 20. Did I miss their flags at half-mast? Were their deaths not worthy of this honor? Surely at least the children killed in school shootings this year deserved their flags?

If guns are the cancer that is killing America, then social media is the bad oncologist who treats until the money runs out before relinquishing those under their care to the local hospice after first letting the social worker or the nurse break the bad news. Everybody out here in the land of misinformation has had an opinion, most of them have been wrong if not outright crazy, and all of them have found adherents. There is a phenomenon that has to do with anything in print. Basically, once an item of information (or misinformation) is rendered into written words, its credibility goes up a notch. Back in the day, when printed words were actually physically printed, this assumed legitimacy had at least some truth to it. The field of journalism relied upon professional reporters, and there were fact-checkers and editors employed to ensure that published information was factual. Now, anyone can write anything, and these electronic words often carry a great deal of weight.

Some of the social media posts that I have read were awful, with the hatred just oozing from them. Others were just nuts. SOME WERE ALL IN CAPS, AS IF HOLLERING AT US WOULD GET THE POINT ACROSS MUCH MORE EFFECTIVELY. A few were so complicated and convoluted as to be sort of funny. One of the opinions I read stated that if Charlie had been armed, this would not have happened. Sigh. Charlie Kirk was killed by a single shot to the carotid artery from 200 yards away by a young man who could shoot. One shot, one kill. A nine-millimeter pistol would not have saved him. Another post stated that cars also kill people before asking if we should outlaw cars. My thoughts on that one are that if an automaker produces a vehicle that can hit a carotid artery at 200 yards then yes, that car should be outlawed.

Another post I read posited the conspiracy theory that Trump himself had ordered the hit, because nothing enhances a political position—or causes people to forget all about Epstein—so much as the creation of a martyr. This was either a left-wing post, or a right-wing post disguised as a left-wing post, or the fictional creation of a Chinese or Russian AI bot, or none of these, and now I have a headache. The theory came complete with a Delta Team sniper, an unmarked jet, and orders to the FBI to look the other way (as if the FBI needs any help these days being incompetent). All it needed was a grassy knoll.

This leads us to the Trump response to Charlie Kirk’s assassination. Charlie had not yet hit the ground before Trump began hollering about left-wing conspiracies and Democratic death-squads. When the assailant was finally captured, it turned out that he was a young, white, educated Christian Republican who had been raised in the gun culture by his pastor father. His parents were also Trump supporters. First off, and I mean no disrespect to anyone with this observation, but thank God he was not Black, Hispanic, Muslim, Trans, or a Democrat. We would be in the middle of a nationwide riot right now, with people being burned at the stake. But the assassin was a white kid, and not to be deterred, Trump doubled-down by saying that leftist liberal views had tainted this young man’s thought process. Whenever I hear a spin of this magnitude, I am reminded of the game we used to play called Twister. You and I can see it as a pathetic attempt to alter reality, but unfortunately for us and for all reasonable, thinking people, there are about 33,000,000 folks out there who have already taken it as gospel.

I guess I will finish with a few of Charlie Kirk’s quotes. As I said, I didn’t know him or even know of him until he got shot and killed so I guess I will have to let his words speak for him.

"We must also be real. We must be honest with the population. Having an armed citizenry comes with a price, and that is part of liberty... We need to be very clear that you're not going to get gun deaths to zero. It will not happen. But I think it's worth it. I think it's worth to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year, so that we can have the Second Amendment."

"I can't stand the word empathy, actually. I think empathy is a made-up, new age term that does a lot of damage." 

"A man who calls himself trans is wearing 'woman face,' no different than I would wear Black face trying to be a Black person. It's assuming an identity that isn't yours."

“Black women do not have the brain processing power to otherwise be taken really seriously. You had to go steal a white person's slot to go be taken somewhat seriously."

“Gun control, like vaccines and masks, is focused on making people feel safe by taking freedoms away from others. Don’t fall for it.”

"If I see a Black pilot, I'm going to be like, 'Boy, I hope he's qualified.'"

"Democrat women want to die alone without children."

"Now, I will say that for future retirees, people under the age of 45, we should absolutely raise the retirement age. I'm going to say something very provocative. I'm not a fan of retirement. I don't think retirement is biblical.”

Wow. Those are some quotes. Anyway, this essay was what was on my mind this morning. Please excuse its rambling nature. If an English 1102 student had submitted it, they would have earned an 88 at best. Maybe an 85. Whoops, that was a sentence fragment. Now we are down to an 80, and I had better quit while I am ahead.