Dallas is the latest city to have its name tied to a mass shooting, this one targeting police officers on scene during what had been a peaceful protest march.
The events unfolded late Thursday night. Five police officers are dead. Scores of other officers and bystanders were injured.
Land of the free, home of the very violent.
I wonder which has been more violent: the first 120 years of America’s existence, or the last 120 years of America’s existence.
Meanwhile, in other, related violent news this week, two men — one in Louisiana, the other in Minnesota — had their black lives snuffed out by police officers whose actions were videotaped and don’t appear to be in concert with proper conduct.
Thus, the protest in Dallas and other cities in reaction to yet another black life not seeming to matter to law enforcement — a complaint as old as the nation, but now we have cell phone cameras and viral videos.
So the noose is tightened from both ends, so to speak.
America is a violent place, simply put.
On a related note: Canada is not a violent place — proof that North America does not have to be a violent place.
Most of us can agree: none of this violence is good, healthy or lawful.
Mass shootings are bad and wrong, no matter who initiates them and why.
Unlawful law-enforcement is also bad and wrong, no matter what colors of skin are involved.
Yet these two forms of killing exist together in our violent, gun-toting, Wild West, deeply racist society like two snakes wrapped around one another, facing opposite directions, each one consuming the other.
I wonder if there will ever be a country called the United States of America that is free so much violence, no matter who the perpetrator or the reason.
I wonder if America can ever become a less aggressive, more peaceful country like some of the more evolved nations of Europe. Or our neighbor to the north: mellow, peaceful, non-violent Canada.
I wonder how many Americans have died in America’s wars with other countries versus how many Americans have died in America’s wars with itself.
No country last forever. For heavens sake, even the landmass known as North America won’t last forever. America will end someday, hopefully not in anyone alive’s lifetime.
But when the death of the country does occur, I suspect America will go down fighting, and its demise will happen slowly, one gun death at a time.
Randy Boyd author 