Day 649

 

The bomber and the shooter will both have their days in court.

What made these two men act this way?  What will the press report?

Are these just two outliers any nation must endure?

Or are they our gene products?  If they are, what is the cure?

 

We call them “right-wing crazies” and we’ve seen their kind before.

Although these adjectives fit well, which one accounts for more?

Both Democrats and Jews attacked, it’s tempting that this means

That, here in our society, Jew hatred’s in our genes.

 

Though Donald Trump did not ignite our tribalistic flame,

He clearly stirred the glowing coals, so he must take some blame.

Our genes for tribalism have been with us from the start.

So toxic white supremacy now plays a major part.

 

Barack Obama shocked our nuts: a president who’s black!

Our white folks who weren’t doing well viewed him as an attack,

Their sense of self-worth challenged when a man with darker skin

Could rise to lead the nation that we all are living in.

 

Jew hatred, white supremacy, ooze from the right’s extremes.

(Conservatism, by itself, does not espouse these themes.)

The same toxicity spilled out in 30’s Germany

And it spreads faster in an autocratic tyranny.

 

Let’s play a broken record; there’s a common thread that runs

Through most of our mass killings and that common thread is guns.

Jew hatred, tribalism, guns, and nuts who take Trump’s bait

Have all increased our murder rate with him as head of state.

 

So, back to our first question: for this sickness, what’s the cure?

It starts with, “Love thy neighbor as thyself.”  It’s not obscure.

Where do we start if we’d extinguish bigotry’s hot flame?

Genetics helps.  We’re 99.9% the same.