tartysuz

I had some unpleasant thoughts after yesterday's school shooting news. They came down to: What if all this -- the attack, the mourning, the outcry -- were to be seen as part of an acceptance that a particular society has made, whether it ever made that formal recognition or not?

This is not an original thought. Tom Tomorrow put it brilliantly in a 2011 cartoon that he re-posted at a reader's request:

Moving from the prosaic to the poetic, here is a mytho-anthropological view that the author Jo Walton just posted:

Originally posted by

papersky at Moloch

In ancient Carthage bronze and angry gods
demanded children's blood and children's bones
and people bowed their heads down on the stones
knowing their city's life hung on those odds.

These babies sacrificed in all their gore
this blood of innocents was shed to save
protect, defend the rest, the parents gave
their children to be safe from theft or war.

So, in America, the mighty Gun
likewise demands this high and bloody price
in children, in a bloody sacrifice
to stern necessity, what must be done.

The Gun, like Moloch, keeps the people free.
But these are not my gods, will never be.

My thoughts are with the survivors, and everyone who works with others toward a safe and fruitful society.