A Note to Rose on Mass Murder in Colorado

Rose, we all are quite amazed by the recent mass murder in a Denver suburb. But I suspect most of us have become near inured to murder and bestial acts, especially since the 9/11 attacks in the United States, Iraq, and Afghanistan. And if that is not enough, we talk blithely about dropping a nuclear bomb on Iran, supposedly in defense of Israel. 
 
And while all these bestial acts occur, we sit silently on the sidelines speaking of our love for our country and how much we respect our soldiers and their sacrifices. We have a president who on TV broadcasts boasts about murdering bin Laden and other persons in Yemen, Afghanistan and Pakistan, all to achieve political points.
 
My dear Rose, we devalue life here and everywhere. There is not one safe place in America or any continent in which profit and wealth are secondary to human welfare. We know this to be true but we shrink back into our comfort holes because we are afraid of our leaders, we are afraid of missing a meal, of losing a job, of losing status.
 
Are our own silence part of what we call Evil or the reign of Evil. Rather I suspect we court Evil, revel in it, boast of it, pay for it and go to the movies to cheer it on. I do not think such abstractions of Evil, Like Bane, speak to the present issue of violence and genocide that are occurring globally, mostly paid by U.S. taxpayers to the tune of $700 billion a year and possibly climbing.
 
For me religion and the Church are not adequate responses. Speaking the truth in concrete terms of what is actually happening and making known the hypocrisy of our leaders must occur more broadly. The media reps cry crocodile tears about how precious and fragile life while supporting the flying of drones almost on every continent dropping bombs on men, women, children, indiscriminately. We send out CIA and mercenaries everywhere destabilizing governments we dislike like Libya, Syria, and more.
 
I thank God they have not yet come for me. I pray for solace and an awakening for those who have suffered losses of family and friends. I pray for peace and health and all things good for the peoples of the earth.
 
Loving you madly, Rudy
 
Rudolph Lewis, Editor
ChickenBones: A Journal
www.nathanielturner.com