Indivisible Upper Yellowstone – Weekly Journal
The Week of Saturday, January 21 through Friday, January 27, 2023 [Vol.4 No.28]
More…Violence of the Week
Abortion |
Climate |
Gun Control |
Rule of Law |
Pandemic |
Inflation |
Ukraine |
Insurrection |
The Week’s Most Notable
Two weeks ago, the theme for the journal was Violence of the Week; two days into last week there were already two bloody mass shootings in California with a total of 19 dead. By the end of the week, newly released video reminded the country – viscerally – about previous violence: the attack on Paul Pelosi, and the police killing of Tyre Nichols in Memphis. Consequently, the theme for this week is More . . . Violence of the Week.
When it comes to mass shootings by now (actually long ago) it’s obvious this is a pattern, a uniquely American phenomenon. The U.S. has had 39 mass shootings since the beginning of the year, the rest of the world, 6 (unofficial). Each is horrific, some more horrific than others. For each incident, the media vibrates for a few days. People feel the shock, briefly. Then comes political and legal blah blah, then fade out. Over, and over, and over. . ..
Then there is political violence. Incited by Trumpian right-wing rhetoric, Nancy Pelosi’s husband was attacked by a hammer wielding housebreaker and sustained near-fatal and life-changing head injuries. And institutional violence, when five Black Memphis policemen stopped a car, supposedly for reckless driving, and within minutes the driver, also Black, was beaten and tased to eventual death. Supposedly the police, members of a special squad, had training on “de-escalation” but their operative police culture produced a different approach. Both of these incidents happened more than a week ago, but became much more real this week because they had been recorded, and the recordings released. The national furor is still underway.
Force and violence are deeply ingrained in American culture. So are 360 million guns for 330 million people. Dating back to colonial America, where frontier life and threats, a small dispersed rural population, a near-egalitarian society, and mass-produced gun technology combined to develop a gun culture unlike any other. Over two centuries we’ve popularized the use of force, violence, and weapons as solutions to disputes and problems – and we’re historically disposed to extend that to politics. Even more so now, since the facilitating reality is that guns come all-too readily to hand.
Many people consider American violence intractable, especially involving guns. Obviously, changing attitudes in a massively entrenched culture, especially if a significant minority doesn’t want or believe in change, is a quixotic task. It’s a platitude to say if there are solutions, they won’t be simple, quick, or complete. Nevertheless, it’s worth seriously considering less “reduce the number of guns” and more “reduce the situations where guns are believed effective.”
“Florida’s Flooding with Right-Wingers, Turning the State into a Fascist Swamp.” That’s one potential headline; Florida Governor DeSantis and his openly Christian-fascism agenda (book banning and the like) are the current media-visible symptoms of a state undergoing profound political change. But Florida is only one of several states which are participating in the newish tribal movement in the American population – roughly labeled geographic polarization. Florida, Arizona, Montana, Idaho, Ohio, Tennessee, and Texas are other states where the influx of new “political migrants” has changed the voting landscape, turning blue into purple and purple into red. There is “self-sorting” going on, but there are now organizations and realty companies facilitating right-wing relocation. People are concentrating in certain suburban cities or counties where fellow wingers congregate (and it isn’t, for example, Houston, Austin, or central Dallas). Florida has become the prototype; formerly a 50-50 state, it has swung decidedly to the right in the last three election cycles. Expect the symptoms of change to become more obvious and numerous – and not just in Florida.
Saturday, January 21
[Mass Shooting] Ten Killed, Nine Injured in Monterey Dance Club – A gunman opened fire in a room crowded with people celebrating the Chinese New Year. [Update: The gunman, identified as Hu Can Tran, a 72-year-old-man, was initially at large but, surrounded by police, committed suicide in his van. An eleventh victim died in hospital.]