Better Angels My Ass

Lincoln, at his first inaugural, spoke of healing of the nation's wounds.

We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.

He was hoping to head off civil war.  It didn't work.  The war came.

And it was bloody and it was awful and it ended up, well, kind of back where we started.  Slavery abolished, sure.  But equality?  Real equality?  Nah.  And certainly not amity.

So much for the better angels of our nature.

We've come a long way since then, of course, mostly leaving the bloodshed behind.  But let's not kid ourselves.  Remember Oklahoma City?

And, of course.

Because whatever lip service we pay

  
Or as The Youngbloods put it 



Because our real American value, the one we demonstrate rather than pontificate, is rather different.

So it's no surprise, really, that when the opportunity presents itself we cheer the killing and condemn those who would . . . .

You know what happened.  

At Ohio State the other day a guy purposely drove into a crowd of people, injuring at least one, then jumped out of his car and began knifing people.  Until a campus cop shot him dead. 

I'm not interested in the cop or the shooting.  I'm not interested in the now-dead guy.  I'm interested in Stephanie Clemons Thompson, assistant director of residence life at Ohio State.  At least, she still is as I write this.  That's the Stephanie Clemons Thompson who posted on facebook

Abdul Razak Ali Artan was a BUCKEYE, a member of our family.  If you think it is okay to celebrate his death and/or share a photo of his dead body and I see it in my timeline I will unfriend you.  I pray you find compassion for his life, as troubled as it clearly was.  Think of the pain he must have been in to feel that his actions were the only solution.  We must come together in this time of tragedy. #BuckeyeStrong #BlackLivesMatter #SayHisName

And, naturally, by Thursday afternoon more than 900 people had signed a petition calling for her to be fired.

Because as true Americans and patriots (and Buckeyes it seems) it is important that we remember to hate and never to show compassion for those who do wrong.

Well, maybe it's OK to not hate once a year.