Stop the Madness

One quick glance at MSNBC's website this morning was all I needed to reaffirm for me the culture of glorified violence that contributes produces asshats like the numpty that killed 33 people yesterday in Virginia. Come watch the videos. Come hear the commentary from survivors of the last similar massacre. The highest death toll from a single mass killing in US history, but to see the way it's portrayed, you'd almost expect to here a booming "Saturday Saturday Saturday! Massacre Madness!" booming in stereo through an echo-chamber to accompany it.

They have a name! They have a name! You know what? I don't want to know his name, and neither should you. Stop letting fame be their reward. Stop letting their "purple explosion" (thank you Elliott Leyton for the fitting image) be their mark on this world. Give them no name. Take their name. Or if we give them one, let it be one no one would want, or let it be a number. Make that a new law: multiple-murder means you're cremated, no grave, and the papers will only print you as "Asshole #74". People who knew you in the past will wonder where you've disappeared. No one will know anything about you. You don't get to bring other human lives to a premature end and somehow elevate your own.

Obscurity.

That should be the reward for such cowardice and nothing more.

Absolute anonymity.