Evil

I am going to write about Orlando now.

There is one commonality I have seen among my LGBTQ friends: not just plain fear but a wartime terror, a flashback terror. Viciousness has been endemic to their history, and the scars are deep.

The Orlando massacre took place on the fifth anniversary of the murders of my friends Amy, Coty, and Monica. Both horrors arose from a dreadful amalgam of control, confusion, self-hatred, cowardice.

Cowardice. I wonder why the powers-that-be don't focus on this aspect of the situation. Why are these angry men such cravens? They romanticize right and wrong, yet exhibit none of the stereotypical bravery of romanticism.

Everywhere, the mowing down of innocents. The people at Wounded Knee. Matthew Shepard. The congregation in Charleston. The citizens at Tiananmen Square. The Rwandan genocide. The Crusades. The list goes on--back through history, across nations and continents.

Earlier this week my friend David wrote about Orlando: "It is beyond terrible. I am so sorry for them, for you, and for your country." Yes. I am so sorry for all of us, and all of our countries, and all of our epochs and ages. Evil is timeless.