It’s interesting… The thing that gave me enough drive to get outside of my comfort zone of entertainment and talk about the things that matter was a shooting. Last week, when it happened again, for what is the…. third or fourth time since I wrote my article on the UCSB shootings, I just ran out of words.
What more can be said that hasn’t already been said on mass shootings like this? I can, again, make the point of how easy it is to get your hands on a gun. I can tell you that there are differing accounts, but sources tend to agree that Dylan Roof, 21, either received or bought the gun to celebrate turning 21. I can tell you his twisted world view, I can tell you it was a church this time, but nothing I can say will ever be able to make sense on the why. Why does this keep happening? Why are there people in our country that do this stuff? Why does hate take that extreme, over and over and over again?
The simplest explanation is that there is no explanation. Not for that kind of evil. He was racist to boot, apartheid-flag-wearing, confederate-flag-waving racist. The survivors have claimed that, before he started shooting, Roof said “You rape our women and are taking over our country, you have to go!” and then unloaded on the black congregation, gathered in a historic place of worship that was founded, and attacked repeatedly, during the era of slavery. This place of sanctuary was violated in the most obscene, heinous of ways, and the strength the survivors have shown since has been something our country and our people need to rally behind.
In his first court appearance, many of the survivors of the massacre forgave Dylan Roof. In Christianity, the concept of forgiveness takes center stage, but in humanity, forgiveness is nearly impossible. Yet, these men and women who had seen friends and family cut down by hate at it’s most vile and poisonous, told the killer they forgave him. That is baffling to me, even though I had said a day earlier that it would be the be possible result, because after killing people in a church as a means of trying to “start a race war,” the people who had seen him do these things managed to have the strength to forgive him. I can’t even fathom that, and I know that I wouldn’t have that strength and I wouldn’t have that power.
I’m going to take the chance at the end of things to memorialize the nine people who died that tragic night. State Senator Clementa Pinckney, a magna cum laude graduate of Allen University, who leaves behind a wife and two children. Tywanza Sanders, also a graduate of Allen University, who described himself as a business man, college grad, poet, artist and barber. He was “Living life where God takes me.” Cynthia Hurd, the manager of St. Andrews Regional Library. She was the sister of North Carolina senator Malcolm Graham. Sharonda Singleton, the head coach of a track/field as well as a speech/language pathologist at Goose Creek High School. She was the mother of three, her oldest son Chris told the nation “Love is always stronger than hate,” when memorializing his mother. Reverend Daniel Simmons, a well known fixture of the South Carolina AME community who had served as pastor for several Charleston area churches prior to retiring. He led weekly Bible studies at the Greater Zion AME Church in Awendaw. They had a memorial service for him there on Sunday. Reverend DePayne Middleton-Doctor, the admissions coordinator at Southern Wesleyan University’s Charleston learning center. She had begun working there this past December. Ethel Lance, who was 70 and had been going to church services at the historic South Carolina AME church for most of her lie. She was retired. Myra Thompson, wife of the reverend Anthony Thompson and alumnae of Delta Sigma Theta. And Susan Jackson, 87, a longtime church member who sang in the choir. She had been to see her grandson in Cleveland, Ohio, recently.
These are the names and a tiny fraction of the stories of the nine people cut down by hate. Don’t let them be forgotten while their killer’s name lives on.
Reflections On Mass Shootings and The Racist South
Dane La Born
It’s interesting… The thing that gave me enough drive to get outside of my comfort zone of entertainment and talk about the things that matter was a shooting. Last week, when it happened again, for what is the…. third or fourth time since I wrote my article on the UCSB shootings, I just ran out of words.
What more can be said that hasn’t already been said on mass shootings like this? I can, again, make the point of how easy it is to get your hands on a gun. I can tell you that there are differing accounts, but sources tend to agree that Dylan Roof, 21, either received or bought the gun to celebrate turning 21. I can tell you his twisted world view, I can tell you it was a church this time, but nothing I can say will ever be able to make sense on the why. Why does this keep happening? Why are there people in our country that do this stuff? Why does hate take that extreme, over and over and over again?
The simplest explanation is that there is no explanation. Not for that kind of evil. He was racist to boot, apartheid-flag-wearing, confederate-flag-waving racist. The survivors have claimed that, before he started shooting, Roof said “You rape our women and are taking over our country, you have to go!” and then unloaded on the black congregation, gathered in a historic place of worship that was founded, and attacked repeatedly, during the era of slavery. This place of sanctuary was violated in the most obscene, heinous of ways, and the strength the survivors have shown since has been something our country and our people need to rally behind.
In his first court appearance, many of the survivors of the massacre forgave Dylan Roof. In Christianity, the concept of forgiveness takes center stage, but in humanity, forgiveness is nearly impossible. Yet, these men and women who had seen friends and family cut down by hate at it’s most vile and poisonous, told the killer they forgave him. That is baffling to me, even though I had said a day earlier that it would be the be possible result, because after killing people in a church as a means of trying to “start a race war,” the people who had seen him do these things managed to have the strength to forgive him. I can’t even fathom that, and I know that I wouldn’t have that strength and I wouldn’t have that power.
I’m going to take the chance at the end of things to memorialize the nine people who died that tragic night. State Senator Clementa Pinckney, a magna cum laude graduate of Allen University, who leaves behind a wife and two children. Tywanza Sanders, also a graduate of Allen University, who described himself as a business man, college grad, poet, artist and barber. He was “Living life where God takes me.” Cynthia Hurd, the manager of St. Andrews Regional Library. She was the sister of North Carolina senator Malcolm Graham. Sharonda Singleton, the head coach of a track/field as well as a speech/language pathologist at Goose Creek High School. She was the mother of three, her oldest son Chris told the nation “Love is always stronger than hate,” when memorializing his mother. Reverend Daniel Simmons, a well known fixture of the South Carolina AME community who had served as pastor for several Charleston area churches prior to retiring. He led weekly Bible studies at the Greater Zion AME Church in Awendaw. They had a memorial service for him there on Sunday. Reverend DePayne Middleton-Doctor, the admissions coordinator at Southern Wesleyan University’s Charleston learning center. She had begun working there this past December. Ethel Lance, who was 70 and had been going to church services at the historic South Carolina AME church for most of her lie. She was retired. Myra Thompson, wife of the reverend Anthony Thompson and alumnae of Delta Sigma Theta. And Susan Jackson, 87, a longtime church member who sang in the choir. She had been to see her grandson in Cleveland, Ohio, recently.
These are the names and a tiny fraction of the stories of the nine people cut down by hate. Don’t let them be forgotten while their killer’s name lives on.