MLK Day 2020: Violence Everywhere Despite Guns Saving Lives

Welcome to Martin Luther King Day, 2020.

King was, of course, The civil rights icon. Obviously there were many other leaders of the movement back in those unbelievably cruel days of legalized segregation and Jim Crow. Some are still around. None, however, despite his very human flaws, carried the moral force and persuasiveness King did.

MLK was an admirer of Mahatma Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, the man who was the driving force behind India's independence from Britain. Like Gandhi, King insisted his followers adhere to a philosophy of strict non-violence during protests against what amounted to institutionalized white supremacy.

In the end they pissed off enough people both of them were gunned down a world apart. Gandhi was murdered in 1948 in New Delhi, King in Memphis, TN 20 years later.

Even though Martin Luther King Day became a federal holiday in 1986, some states resisted observing it because, first, he was black, and second, he spent much of his adult life proving how racist and wrong they were. It took until 2000 for all 50 states to set aside the third Monday in January to officially celebrate his birth and cause.

Two decades later we began the three day holiday honoring the man of peace and justice here in OKC at Penn Square Mall. For the second time in a month some goof with a short fuse and a gun opened fire inside the enclosed shopping center. The only good news is that in both instances the marksmanship of the shooters was about as sharp as their brain functions. A month ago one person was wounded while Saturday another took what is being described as a minor hit from, "shrapnel." The perps initially escaped. OKC cops arrested the first a day after he opened fire in a Footlocker store. The second is still on the run after he tried to shoot up the front of a movie theater.

On Sunday Ms. Lois Cain attempted to serve eviction papers on tenet Jarolsav Hanel in Honolulu. Hanel had been living at Cain's residence for an undetermined amount of time in exchange for performing handy man labor. That ended when Cain, who had been living out of state, decided to move back to Hawaii and needed the house to live in.

Police responded to the home near Waikiki Beach after Hanel stabbed his land lord. Before the nightmare was over Jarolsav Hanel shot and killed two cops then set the place on fire. The blaze spread to seven other homes before it was extinguished. Hanel reportedly had a history of mental issues significant enough at least four neighbors had filed restraining orders against him. Police are still searching the ashes of the home for his body and those of two women who were believed to be there with him.

Later that evening in Kansas City all sorts of people were lining up outside of a night club in order to celebrate the Chiefs football win over Tennessee in the AFC finals. Unfortunately an unidentified man was there for another reason. He opened fire on those in line to get in the joint. Before a licensed security guard shot and killed him, the presumably non Chiefs fan had murdered one woman and wounded 15 others, three critically.

In the immediate aftermath of the disaster Jackson County Prosecutor, Jean Peters Baker told the media, "Way too many people are armed."

Well don't tell them that in Richmond, lady.

Thousands of pro gun advocates showed up at the Virginia state capitol today in order to protest proposed legislation which could mildly restrict gun sales. (You can't buy more than one weapon a month and high capacity ammo clips would be banned) The situation which some feared might become violent ended up peacefully enough, maybe because Governor Ralph Northam had issued an emergency ban on weapons being carried at Capitol Square. Or, it might have been that all the neo-Nazi and white supremacist thugs who promised to show up and wreak havoc wimped out and stayed away.

That didn't stop a bunch of so called militia members from displaying their portable phallic totems outside of the confines of the square. They carried their guns, wore their masks, marched, sang, recited the second amendment in unison, and told anyone one who would listen they were there to save, The American Way of Life. 

To prove how sincerely humane they are thousands of these insufferable clowns wore round orange stickers which read, "Guns Save Lives."

Now there is a sentiment which certainly captures the true spirit of Martin Luther King's life and work.

Ladies and gentlemen, the bar is open. Those of you carrying weapons can either check them at the door, or stay the fuck out. Your pseudo patriotism, not to mention the, "1984," newspeak logic on those stickers, are lost on me.



1-20-20