One Hell of a Day

It began well.

In Gothic novels, you always know when the plot is about to go south -- the sky turns black, wolves howl, a chill wind shrieks through the trees and rattles the window panes -- you get a chance to brace yourself. In real life, when really horrible things are about to happen, up to that point, it's usually the best day of your life. Thursday was one of those days.

The people gathered at the Soldier Readiness Center at Fort Hood, Texas, were there to celebrate a college graduation. At the same time, thousands more were gathered in Washington, D.C., to celebrate our Constitutional right to petition our representatives -- we were a jubilant crowd despite the seriousness of our petition. But as the D.C. crowd dispersed, still exulting, the rest of the country was focused on Fort Hood. The graduation party had been turned into a national nightmare, a vicious attack, perpetrated by a disgusting coward who used his Muslim "faith" as an excuse for unspeakable evil against innocents -- a teenage girl shot in the back, a pregnant woman murdered in the same way. As of this writing, there are 13 dead. 30 are wounded.

My prayers are with the families. My anger is all over the place.

In a way, I'm glad the jihadi bastard lived long enough to know he was taken down by a woman. I'd be happier still if I thought he was likely to recover sufficiently to stand -- first for a Court Martial and then for a firing squad. Unfortunately, because such thoroughgoing evil is so incomprehensible a thing to rational people -- witness how paralyzed even the military authorities were when faced with what now seems abundant evidence of his motives -- he will most likely be declared non compus and allowed to live. In the meantime, the mainstream press have put on an appalling display of political correctness, bias, and out-and-out stupidity. Fuck. Them. All.

Fortunately, we have other ways of keeping informed, but like me, most of the people I was with that day were almost certainly oblivious. I hate to imagine the shock felt by my fellow crowd members when they finally heard -- many were veterans or from military families, quite a few were there from Texas. I was only able to get information in tiny fragments. My cell phone wouldn't work properly in the House office building (tried to return a missed call and could not dial out) -- and even around the Capitol grounds, phone data reception was agonizingly slow and spotty. My phone was pegging out on me from the effort, too, so before I could see more than the first few alarming posts from Twitter, I had to turn it off and wait till I could plug it in on the train. Even then, cell reception being what it is, I really didn't get the whole story until I got back to C'ville, got into my car, and flipped on the radio.

I wish I could believe that Thursday's events -- both the evil and the good -- were powerful enough to change the hearts and minds of those in power. I wish.