Value of Genius

[fdelano]

A worm in his brain ate at his genius,

 

cutting circuits to sanity, opening

 

lines of hatred and uncaring, still

 

retaining knowledge far beyond

 

that of his colleagues.

 

 

 

Circumstances removed him from

 

an academic world to one where

 

he lived alone with his sickness

 

and hallucinations. Other people

 

registered only as objects to kill.

 

 

 

He knew intimately the preparations

 

to be made, even to the point of killing

 

those who would find and enter his

 

apartment, a place he would never

 

need again, nor want.

 

 

 

Trapped in a world of fantasy

 

and role playing, he became the Joker,

 

hair on fire, and prepared for the act

 

of his life, every movement planned

 

to perfection for maximum pleasure.

 

 

 

Smiling with the gash of a mouth,

 

he watched the effects of tear gas,

 

his victims helpless as he ended

 

their lives, no emotion running

 

through his scrambled mind.

 

 

 

We cannot comprehend these acts

 

of horror, but we forget such as Buchenwald

 

and women and children who gleefully

 

strap on explosives to end theirs and the lives

 

of those they have been taught to loathe.

 

 

 

Tomorrow, or another day, a greater

 

horror will fill our TVs and computers

 

for days, until fresh gore demands

 

the time of commentators who live

 

to fill our demands of rubber-necking.

[dedalus]

A commemoration of yet another violent and inexplicable event. I wonder what the NRA has to say about this one? Not much. "Tomorrow, or another day, a greater/ horror will fill our TVs and computers/ for days, ..." I know that similar shooting incidents happen in other countries ( a horrible incident in Norway a few months ago, another one in France) but none seem to happen with the same frequency as they do in the US. Surely people must be able to see by now that there has to be a connection between the number of these incidents and the easy availability of lethal weapons?

[fdelano]

Thanks for taking notice, Brendan. Since the plethora of weapons continually increase, it becomes a matter of statisics, factoring out those states that control weapons completely. Wait--didn't Syria control completely? Egypt, Lebanon, Ireland and even great Great Britain, even? Things will heat up in Europe more as the droves of jobless and ignorant youngsters, ones of the age we use to fight our big wars, learn to see themselves as an entity, and that all the pretty prizes are almost in reach. "Baby Boomers" is an apt name for those who spawned, showered them with all they desired, and then set them loose on the rest of us. Weapons are terrible things, even spears and clubs in the wrong hands. I flew around the planet with hydrogen bombs for a large slice of my life. Never dropped one. It's likely that neither of us would be trying to write poetry if I had. There are enough of those in storage and on the tips of missiles to crack the planet apart, but Sarin gas could get us all before that happens.

[Benjamin]

Just read my Sunday newspaper with details of this crime. I also read about the bankruptcy of the city of Stockton USA. The security fiasco and alleged corruption at the London Olympics. On one of the other pages was an article about Assad in Syria moving chemical weapons with a view to hanging onto power at any cost.

Although people may not be formally educated they are much more aware of how the world works-- more so now than at any other time in the past, due to modern communications. They are less inclined to accept crumbs from the tables of the "haves" and more inclined to turn the table over. Young people become frustrated after years of preparation for a world that seems to hold no place for them. From birth we are taught "work hard, be decent and all will turn out right." What a shock when reality sets in. Yet as adults we all have needs which can't be ignored. Some make the best of the hand they are dealt: some resort to crime, others become resigned to being 'used' and a grey mundane existence, while others implode and explode. I watched a WW2 film many years ago, (may have been Anzio) in which Robert Mitchum played a war correspondent covering front-line action. At the end, Mitchum's world weary character said something along the lines that "people kill each other because they like to."

[dedalus]

Interesting comments but I detect two different scenarios; the first is the availability of weapons in times of relative peace and order (I stress the "relative", by which I mean general consent of the governed to those governing) and the availability of weapons in times of social breakdown and disorder ... when they tend to show up all over the place!

[fdelano]

I think all weapons should be outlawed, but then would those in charge have weapons? Never seems to work out very well. Ah, I may have missed that the subject has changed to politics.

[tonyv]

If it weren't for guns, I'd be a British subject (and also unable to adequately defend against rioters who would see fit to kick in my door and help themselves to my clock radio and family).

[Larsen M. Callirhoe]

i would own a huntin rifle and maybe a glauch to shoot up at the range. i would hide the keys to the gun locks. but as of now i am a mental patient that they would never let own a gun lol. i wasn't one before my accident, so i don't get that part of it. but a private citizen who didn't go to target pravtice at the local range. how in the hell does he get all that crap so easily lol. but not really funny at all. he makees my milk go sour very fast. doesnt a red flag go up when he purchases a clip that holds 102 rounds. hello gun dealers you sell to whack crack dealers but not to law abiding citizens. just sayin....

 

victor