Tag Archives: Highland Park shooting

309 = epidemic

Let us ponder for a brief moment a simple number: 309.

That is the number of what we call “mass shootings” that have occurred in the United States just in the current calendar year.

Now, where I come from, they would be inclined to call that an epidemic. Yes, 309 incidents of mass shootings — defined as when we have more than four fatalities — have occurred in the Land of the Free and Home of the Brave. That’s just in 2022!

At this very moment, I am not feeling too damn free and I certainly am not feeling brave about the prospects of venturing too far from home.

They had a Fourth of July parade in suburban Chicago, for God’s sake, when the latest terrorist attack occurred. Authorities have just announced that a seventh victim has died from injuries suffered at the grimy hands of the shooter.

When in the name of all that is sacred is enough going to be enough?

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Oh, the tragic irony

Surely, I am not the only American who sees the horrible irony of the mass shooting today in Highland Park, Ill., that killed six people and injured dozens of others.

It occurred on the Fourth of July, the day we recognize the birth of our great nation that tragically has become known for precisely the type of violence that erupted yet again this morning just north of Chicago.

“Only in America” can this happen? I hate making that suggestion, but it appears that appears to be the case. To be clear, other parts of the world do experience this sort of madness … but not to the extent to which we are becoming seemingly numb to its frequency in this country.

We just finished burying those 19 precious children and two of their teachers in Uvalde. That remembrance came immediately after 10 shopping center customers were gunned down in Buffalo, N.Y.

The instances occur with frightening regularity. My wife said to me today, “It looks like we’re not going to be able to go anywhere.” The shooting today took place amid the red, white and blue bunting, banners and flags of a Midwest town’s parade honoring our nation’s 246th birthday.

The good folks of Highland Park now will be consigned to remembering this day for entirely different and tragic reasons.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com