Failure To Rise

In my inbox, I have an email from Fandango. The subject line: How did you like The Dark Knight Rises?

It is not an easy question.

It was, for me, a particularly difficult movie to watch and enjoy. Especially during the scenes involving gunfire. I just couldn't help thinking about those who died. Like me, they were just trying to see a movie. I thought about not going, but then I thought that lets the bastard win. Truth is, he killed twelve people; he already "won."

Driving around town, I noticed all the flags at half mast. It's nice to think that we care enough about each other to honor the dead in this small way, but the cynic in me knows it's just the big corporations playing the sympathy card in a way that brings them positive attention. It's the story that everyone is talking about, at least for 24 hours.

But this will all go away soon. We can't stand to look at it too long. We cluck our tongues and we marvel at the evil and the tragedy and we wonder why someone didn't do something, and then we turn away.

As for me, I had a meltdown in a Wal-Mart parking lot. Seemed as good a place as any. I was listening to this song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shUB20PpYyY

How many is this? Columbine, Virginia Tech, we give them names and drag them out when the next one comes, parade them around a bit, make comparisons and contrasts and try to read the tea leaves to determine where we should lay the blame. But nothing changes.

Oh sure, maybe we'll pass a law or something. A fat lot of good that ever did. Wasn't murder against the law on Friday night too?

It's not the law that needs to change. We do. We can no longer look away. We can no longer avoid getting involved. We can no longer expect someone else to do something. THERE IS NO ONE ELSE.

On the way home from my meltdown at Wal-Mart, I passed a homeless man, a veteran. He had his veteran card clipped to his "please help" sign. The song was still playing, asking "is this the best that we can do?" And I was again ashamed of my country, the way we treat those who served, the way we treat those who need, the way we marginalize and minimize and ostracize until people are meaningless.

We are, or at least were, the most powerful, wealthiest country in the world.

Until there is no hunger, this is not our best.

Until there is no homelessness, this is not our best.

Until there is healthcare, including and especially mental health, for everyone, this is not our best.

Until there are no Columbines and no Dahmers and no Sanduskys, this is not our best.

Until we remember that the only things with meaning are not things at all, but people, we will never be at our best.

And until we can look these events in the eye, until we can look past the labels, until we can see that the marginal matter, and matter more than the wealthy, the powerful and the famous, we will never be our best.

We have let each other down. We all deserve better.

A country should be judged on how the most marginal, the weakest, the most helpless of its population is treated, protected, and cared for.

We are failing, emphatically.