The Mass Shooting No One Ever Talks About

The Mass Shooting No One Ever Talks About
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“What number of dead here would it have taken to give the nation pause? Twelve people were fatally shot at the Navy Yard [last] Monday, and America hardly noticed.”

I sat down in the backseat of a cab and heard the WTOP news announcer say the primary suspect had been killed.

"My dad works there…at the Navy Yard." I told the driver.

"Is he ok?" he asked.

"Yeah."

"Good."

We were silent for the remainder of the trip to Union Station, both of us listening intently to the radio report of the news.

I paid the driver when we arrived; “Feel better,” he called after me as I walked away. “You too,” I said. It was habit, but I was glad I said it anyway.

That night, I was just glad my dad was okay…relief rocked me to sleep.

But I haven’t really slept well since.

“President Obama perfunctorily noted that “yet another mass shooting” had occurred. He required no moment to get control of his emotions, as he had at the lectern after the mass shooting in Newtown, Conn.”

Sunday was the memorial service for the victims of the Navy Yard Shooting. Some of the most important people from this area of the country were there. My parents said it was a beautiful, somber, perfect military ceremony.

But don’t waste your time reading about it from mainstream news sites. You’ll be reading arguments about gun control. (The Navy report is the only site worth reading.)

Honestly, I don’t have strong feelings about gun control. That’s not really the point anyway.

But I do have a problem with every article I read about the memorial service spending more time discussing Congress’s failings to pass gun control legislation than the victims or the memorial service itself.I have a problem with politicizing a military memorial service to villainize those opposed to your opinions.

“For most of the day on Monday, Major League Baseball thought it might hold a game a few blocks from the site of the shooting. … Meanwhile, my Facebook and Twitter feeds were full of the usual.”

I have a problem with leading Republican senators tweeting once about the the Navy Yard and over and over again about Defunding Obamacare on the same day 12 people didn't come home from work.

I have a problem seeing more Facebook posts about Kenya, iOS7, the Emmys, and a college professor giving a lecture that upset a lot of students and alumni.

And I am guilty of participating in mundane social media chatter. But I wish I wasn’t.

I can make an excuse...it’s hard for me to talk about. It literally could have been my dad.

But no one else is talking about it either.

Should they?

“When 12 people are massacred in the District, it’s not people dying in Real America.”

I didn’t cry for New Orleans or Newtown or Boston.

I’m not really asking anyone to cry.

But that doesn’t mean no one should talk about it. That doesn't mean we shouldn't be DC Strong, or Pray for DC, or show our support with a DC ribbon.

"When 12 people are shot dead in This Town, our nation shrugs collectively and offers justifications for its apathy."

Cynthia McCabe was right: "Beyond the Beltway, Americans can be forgiven for not knowing the geography of the city. ... What cannot be forgiven is the dehumanization of a town and the uninterest when 12 people who work there do not make it home."

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Originally published on the author’s personal blog on September 24, 2013. Quotes from this article.

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