THE RETURN OF THE LONE GUNMAN

For the last hour or so I have stared at the TV, essentially watching nothing except meaningless images of cops in bullet proof vests, armed with automatic weapons, standing around looking grim as TV cameras troll like sharks in search of images, and voices babble non-information. All I learned is that some kid with a couple of pistols and a shitload of ammunition went on the rampage and killed and wounded a whole lot of people. I have been told countless times that this is a record for civilian mass slaughter in the USA, like massacre was some variety of bloody sporting event. It has been suggested that the shooter was oriental and thus a foreigner. One talking head wanted to involve rap music.(?) There would also appear to be some two-hour anomaly in the timeline, which is a dash of mystery in a situation in which I am really leaning nothing. I’m also being told that the President – a man who likes to do his mass killing from a long and comfortable distance – will be on TV in less than an hour. I don’t quite understand why. All I know was that I had to sit down and write this, away from CNN, because all my television is doing was providing me with an inert, unhealthy, and vicarious connection to sudden death on the other side of the country and, as I watched, I begin to feel wholly disgusted with myself and decidedly less than clean.