For just
Some
Dam
Weepin’s permit
I protect and serve
Up my enemies
Like
Cold
Turkey
Shoot
Only to rifle
But growing ode
In a ghastly alchemy
Silver bullets turning to lead
Down the wrong path
Instantly poisoned
Hearts and minds
In the cruelest democracy
Community going
For broke
The simplest solution
Drunk
With wons
Britches down
In a flash
A bad moon rising
Eclipsing gumption
In the forced
And bye-ways
Camouflaging knights
And daze
Seeing evil
Through darkness
And narrow sites
Seeing in for red
Aimed for more heat than light
As mirror man
Shutters a mist
The in side out
As awe the rage
For their own
Good
I mean
Bad
Here is yet another poem against gun violence. When it comes to ballads not bullets, I have plenty of ammunition. Besides just being cruel, violence is inherently anti-democratic. There are inescapable conundrums in eliminating, or threatening to eliminate, other people as a form of building community. Of coarse, many people are willing to sacrifice another than do the hard work of making high ideals manifest. Even the concept of “self” defense razes issues of human rights, inclusiveness, and the sacredness of life. There is little doubt that practicing nonviolence takes great discipline and sacrifice. This is in sharp contrast to the so-called “last-resort” of violence that so lazily creeps up to number one.
At what price do we give up our freedom to practice nonviolence? The Faustian bargain of violence offers an escape from the rigors of morality and authentic community by claiming, “They made me do it,” a convenient denial of one’s freedom — and another’s! Of course, the enforcement of might makes right extracts the bulk of the price from others, the opposite of self-discipline and sacrifice. Creating community is costly, just as destroying community is costly. The real question is: Who pays the cost and who reaps the benefits (in the case of destruction, of what remains)? As in the dysfunction of capitalism, where greed and selfishness are raised up as virtues necessary to “progress”, violence is about getting the most benefit for oneself (and one’s kin) at the lowest cost to oneself. Not surprisingly, when the lowest common denominator is oneself, and greed is a virtue, community, which prospers on the common good, suffers. The fundamental problem is that the destruction of violence extracts a cost from the whole (community) that can only be rationalized in piecemeal, selfish fashion. Violence is an attempt to shift a cost to others. This works in part when you force others to experience loss due to your violence, and the cost of this is disproportionately shared by your victims. However, there is no substitute for your own moral agency. Your responsibility cannot be “cost shifted” to others (only the effects of your irresponsibility can). This is the irrevocable loss of moral failings. Morality is simply exercising your freedom in a responsible way. Saying you don’t have a choice, e.g, “They made me do it,” is a cop out. Morality isn’t easy; if it was, everybody would be doing it! In short, wielding lethal weapons is perhaps the worst way to demonstrate personal responsibility. Guns are the lowest form of community. Even if guns are the last resort, this is not a resort in which I want to live.
