Santa Fe, Texas: Here We Go Again in the Land of the Free

To paraphrase Ronald Reagan, here we go again.

This latest iteration of the ongoing carnage that marks America's sordid sexual affair with guns and the violence they bring occurred in Santa Fe, TX, a small burg about half way between Houston and Galveston.

This insanity is going down so fast these days cable news networks can't even agree on the number of shooting incidents that have happened at schools in this year of our Lord, 2018. MSNBC reported Friday's nightmare was the 22nd, while FOX said it was the fifth.

Well who is really counting any more? I mean let's face it, at this point the only thing that's going to stop these hyper violent moments of madness is the start of summer vacation--which can't get here quick enough for everybody.

Eight Santa Fe students and two teachers are dead. One of them is a girl who had recently, and quite publicly, told her soon to be killer there was no way in hell she was going to date him, so he might as well stop bugging her about it.

17 year old, Dimitrios Pagourtzis, fit the profile of a high school shooter so perfectly that he was, in fact, nothing more than a grotesque cliché.

Yes, another loner who spoke rarely and was reportedly bullied, although it is uncertain by who. He routinely shut out the clamor in the halls with earphones, and no matter how steamy the southeast Texas weather became, invariably dressed in a long black trench coat. The only exception to the image was the kid played football his freshman year and was apparently fairly good at it.

On Friday, in addition to the trench coat, he wore a tee shirt with the words, "Born to Kill," across the front. He was also packing his father's Remington shotgun and .38 caliber pistol along with an unspecified number of functional explosive devices.

He managed to dispel any after the act NRA inspired fantasies by shooting and critically wounding an armed guard working security at the start of his rampage. Then for nearly 25 minutes he went toe to toe with police responders in a full fledged fire fight so intense it still isn't clear if Pagourtzis killed and wounded all the casualties, or if some were the victims of what is known in the trade as, friendly fire.

Texas Senator, Ted Cruz offered his prayers to the victims and their families. This after running campaign ads in 2016 which featured him cooking a slice of bacon wrapped around the heated barrel of a rapid fire semi automatic rifle he was gleefully blasting away with.

The Lt. Governor of the state, Dan Patrick, immediately stated guns were not at fault in this epic horror show because, "They are part of who we are as a nation."

He went on to blame, everything from not teaching religion in public schools, to video games and homes with no fathers--even though Pagourtzis' dear old Dad was obviously home that day, along with his guns. And, finally, Mr. Patrick said the right of a woman to get an abortion was also a contributing factor.

Not to be outdone, Oklahoma gubernatorial candidate, Dan Fisher told fellow republicans gathered in Duncan, the problem was a, "...decaying moral culture." He went on to say, "We expose them to every possible obscene thing, whether it's through a video game, or movies and then we're surprised when we've taught them they're just animals that they act like animals."

For those with short memories Duncan is the town where three young geeks shot and killed a visiting Australian because, "they were bored," It was also the home of Alan Hruby who stole his father's gun then used it to kill him, his mother, and sister so he could continue his free spending ways with the family fortune.

It is unknown how many video games any of them watched, or under what circumstances abortion might have warped their moral sensibilities. We do know, however in both cases, just as in Santa Fe, TX,  easily obtained guns were involved.

But what the hell, as the Lt. Governor said, they are part of us as a nation right?

Indeed they are.

That's why no one was truly surprised when Dimitrios Pagourtzis ran amok with a couple of them at Santa Fe High School last Friday. The truth is, at this juncture, the only real stunner was it took three months from the Parkland FL mass shooting until now for it to happen again.

Hey, this sort of bat shit craziness is exactly why we still delude ourselves into believing we are, The Land of the Free.

Don't think so? Just ask the hillbilly who showed up at the Santa Fe campus less than 24 hours after the shooting wearing a pro Trump hat while carrying a semi automatic weapon slung over his shoulder. He'll explain it to you.




5-21-18