This was written on July, 23, 2015, shortly after I learned of the shooting in Lafayette, LA.
Just as the last few lines imply another person could be out there, ready to take a gun into our communities with malicious intent, in a sad twist, another shooter was taken down by police in the streets of Studio City, CA, the very next day. Thankfully, no innocent bystanders were killed, but that dude lost his life so it can't be viewed entirely as a victory, can it?
I wrote this because it seems more and more we hear of these shootings in America and it's impossible to keep up. With our own population steeply divided on the issue of gun control, this seems like one of those storms we need to weather.
Hopefully no one else gets kills while all the sides figure it out. That sounds naive to say as violence, guns or otherwise, will continue because throughout human history we have demonstrated that we are a destructive people, despite our ability to create beauty.
But without hope, what do we have?
Shot Clock
:24 - Shots fired, shots fired! A Tweet is quickly leaked.
:23 - Viral fire, viral fire! The leak grows as its repeated, 2.3k as we speak.
:22 - Facts, facts! Waiting on the official reports as 10.5k tweets are trending.
:21 - Reload, reload! News can't reach us that fast, want to know what's up before the commercial break is ending.
:20 - The victims, their families! Now that there's some 'truth,' how then do we react?
:19 - Forgive, move on! One voice but an echo in the distance and will say at last.
:18 - Anger, Vengeance! Another will protest, the temperature quickly rising...
:17 - Prayers... Prayers... A politician, all smiles, perfect hair, in a suit will request.
:16 - Change! Change! A preacher, haggard facial lines, in disheveled dress will contest.
:15 - Eff the man! Fight the power! @someone will Re-tweet with download my new mixtape & EP out on iTunes this week.
:14 - Rise up, rise up! A collective voice of the common citizen becomes a shout.
:13 - Tragedy! Travesty! Alright, another movement is born and change in our community is what we're about.
:12 - Shots! Shots! More shots reveal the problem is bigger than one city in yet another a tweet.
:11 - Truce! Truce! Old news #Throwback about gang members from that Baltimore mess who protected their home streets.
:10 - No more brutality! Where's equality? Are our leaders really just that clueless?
:09 - Darkness. Sadness. Let it set in for oh how none of this makes sense.
:08 - Disbelief! Disgust! Let our hatred mask our pain even though we're all mongrels.
:07 - Error. Error. Network overload, please try your request again.
:06 - Bow your heads, let us pray. Our Father, Who Art in Heaven...
:05 - Another shooter, no it's a thug! Is this 'ish' even real?
:04 - Chaos! Chaos! Rapidly it pollutes in a fashion that's quite surreal.
:03 - Guns don't kill. People kill. We like to kill regardless of our race.
:02 - Reload, reload. Meanwhile from a quiet corner of another room on Earth's shared space.
:01 - Shots! Shots! More shots! Every day, they seem to be fired at rapid pace.
:00 - Buzzer! Buzzing! With that left yet again, are we in more disgrace.