excerpt from an email to jonathan hayes

mass shooting in TX broke me.  i was alright until i read the dead were 8-10 years old children.  then my eyes experienced a sudden irrigation.  the very fiber of my nerves shredded.  partly because these shooting happen over & over & over again.  like a soundtrack stuck on a loop.  we can't we won't turn it off.  mostly because these are babies, innocent, full of life, waiting for summer vacation.  what kind of nation are we that finds it acceptable - i do mean the word acceptable for we as a polity, as a people, as a culture, as a nation, do nothing to prevent the slaughter of such small children.