It’s hard to know what to say after yet another mass shooting in the United States. As others have written, the fact t that we now average more than one a day can easily lead to a bizarre sense of normality, as in “another day, another massacre.” We can settle too comfortably into a cycle of anger, grieving and forgetfulness. Almost as a ritual. And how wrong that is.

We know, of course, the division over gun safety laws continues without apparent resolution. Never mind that a great majority of the American pubic wants stronger laws to try and limit gun violence, the facts are that with the National Rifle Association and its cowardly allies in and out of Congress, little is going to be done. Similarly, we need more far-reaching laws to deal with mental health issues, and while many lawmakers agree on this, there are many others who continue to vote down more money to accomplish this.

A dialogue between these sides isn’t happening. But it must. We simply have to talk rationally and with civility and respect about gun laws and mental health problems. The two are so connected. Isn’t there any shred of sense and sensibility that would lead our Congress to put aside partisanship (on all sides) and sit down to talk over these problems. Surely no one can ignore what’s happening.

And yet….

There is this satiric commentary that appeared in The Onion today. It is tragically ironic, and I happily acknowledge its creators. Please read it. And weep for us.

From The Onion:
SAN BERNARDINO, CA—In the hours following a violent rampage in southern California in which two attackers killed 14 individuals and seriously injured 17 others, citizens living in the only country where this kind of mass killing routinely occurs reportedly concluded Wednesday that there was no way to prevent the massacre from taking place. “This was a terrible tragedy, but sometimes these things just happen and there’s nothing anyone can do to stop them,” said Michigan resident Emily Harrington, echoing sentiments expressed by tens of millions of individuals who reside in a nation where over half of the world’s deadliest mass shootings have occurred in the past 50 years and whose citizens are 20 times more likely to die of gun violence than those of other developed nations. “It’s a shame, but what can we do? There really wasn’t anything that was going to keep these individuals from snapping and killing a lot of people if that’s what they really wanted.” At press time, residents of the only economically advanced nation in the world where roughly two mass shootings have occurred every month for the past six and a half years were referring to themselves and their situation as “helpless.”