Bleak

Dear President Biden,

“Yesterday was a really bad day for him, and this is what he did.”
Capt. Jay Baker of the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office

I’m sure you know by now who Jay Baker is and that he said this unspeakably callous thing about Robert Aaron Long having gone to three spas in the Atlanta area yesterday with a 9mm semi-automatic pistol he bought that morning that he used to shoot and kill 8 people, including 6 Asian women.

In trying to find out how many people were wounded and still alive (I think one, but the reports aren’t clear), I came across a WP report saying that Baker had posted images of a racist T-shirt blaming COVID on China last year (see the 6:27pm entry).

You know, it’s too much. It’s too heavy. We’re asking too much of people of color, of women, of children, of everyone. This shit just keeps happening and nothing meaningful is done. Sure, Long will go to prison for the rest of his life and maybe Baker will be fired, but the next Long and the next Baker will take the places of this week’s versions next week or the next week. Or really, next week and the next week. Truly, it’s never ending.

It’s good you’ve gotten Manchin (and Sinema?) to agree that the filibuster needs to be changed to require Senators actually talk, but I doubt it’s going to be enough to get any real movement on gun control and that’s not ok.

I’m not sure what else to say. Things are feeling pretty bleak right now.

May we all be safe, just safe.
May we be willing to face the real drivers of all this hate and violence.
May we have the strength to stand up to the gun lobby and toxic masculinity.
May we accept that the US needs a full on intervention.

Sincerely,
Tracy Simpson