No words

Any day you have a mass murder is a bad day. This one seems even worse than usual — and not because it’s a new American record for the number of dead.

For me, the worst thing about this one is my reaction to it: anger, sorrow, recrimination, and then … resignation. The worst thing is finally accepting that I live in a country where mass murders are commonplace. The most interesting thing about them now is a record body count. We’re up to 50 and counting. How long will that stand?

The Washington Post and some other media outlets had the good sense to turn off comments on stories about the Orlando massacre, but there’s no escaping them unless you sit in your bedroom and look at the wall. Everybody has an opinion, mostly the same useless opinions they always express when a lot of innocent people are mowed down in the service of some vague rage or ideology.

The most maddening, for me, are the ones declaring that the military-grade weapons used to commit most of them are in no way a factor. The second most maddening are those blandly offering thoughts and prayers. Yeah, right. Why not just hit the “like” button on Facebook? Thoughts and prayers don’t seem to have accomplished a great deal over the last couple of decades. Maybe we need something a bit more concrete.

I don’t know the answer to this. Donald Trump would rather ban Muslims than combat weapons. I don’t think that’ll do it. And I know that resignation, acceptance — the kind of feeling I had today — can’t be part of it either. We elect leaders to figure out the hard stuff. I sure wish somebody would lead.