No Justice in a Post-truth world
This right here. In a just society, first and foremost, parents like these wouldn’t be in this position in the first place. That type of society would have long ago rectified the problem after countless children have been murdered at their school. In a just society, more kids would be alive to grow, graduate, and maybe even start new families. Most importantly, a just society would never allow a police officer to manhandle the parent of a murdered child for the ostensible crime of checks notes wanting to take her daughter out of school. Were we actually in a just society, that cop would never be allowed in public without getting spit on.
And yet, here we are. Since the time of this incident, we had two kids/teens shot for the crime of knocking on the wrong door, turning down the wrong driveway, or mistakenly getting into the wrong car. Fuck, JUST LAST WEEK a man murdered a group of immigrants because they asked him to stop shooting guns off in his yard. At what point do we just say, “enough”? At what point to we acknowledge how fundamentally broken we are and, I dunno, FUCKING DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT?
I’m writing this at a coffee shop just a bit short of three miles from our apartment. It’s a beautiful day and I rode my bike here. I’m currently working on my promotion narrative for my job and, later today, my wife is gonna head out to a soccer game. We live a great life where we can do things like work from home, bike commute, take public transit, and go to coffee shops. And yet, just a few minutes a go I read this piece by Albert Burneko and my heart just sank. I think about the fact that here in Seattle, there are countless Jordan Neely’s living on the streets, or by Greenlake, or underneath I-5. You see them everyday and you just…walk on by like it’s not your problem. Because Americans in particular learned long ago that, if shit isn’t going your way and things are hard, it’s probably a personal failing and you’re just not hustling enough.
My wife has written a bit about our fertility journey (check out her substack, btw) and one of the conversations we keep having is about bringing a kid into…all of this. Just a few months ago, a quick bike ride from our place, a teenager was shot at his high school. Just another kid dying at a place where there supposed to be safe. Supported. Learning. And instead of doing shit about it, gun-fucking politicians (particularly from my home state of Texas) want to respond by give us teachers guns IN ADDITION to throwing money at already ballooning police departments. You know: more bullets = safer kids. Except in Uvalde. Or in Brooklyn. It’s so bad, we’re seriously considering moving to Mexico and, when you say this to some people, they scoff and talk about cartel violence. Except, there’s a major difference: cartels aren’t looking to shoot kids. My dad has lived and worked in Mexico for almost 30 years and has never had any issues with cartel violence. And yet, in the time since I was in high school, there have been over 300 school shootings.
In a just society, my wife and I wouldn’t be looking for a way out of this fucking madhouse. In a just society, we wouldn’t have to worry about traveling across the US if my wife were pregnant. In a just society, we wouldn’t have to worry about rising inflation, another looming economic recession, or skyrocketing housing prices.
But we don’t live in a just society.
