Some people who typically read as, brand as, or are identified by their charm, charisma, or even their funny-felt a pinch of solemn yesterday as reports and social media was ablaze after news that on Wednesday night, gunman Dylann Roof stepped to a church, peeped in on the bible study while he contemplated and premeditated plan, and an hour later-executed that plan (and 9 other innocent persons who he didn’t know but somehow felt they were in control of some thing in this lifetime that he felt powerless about).
As a result of these dances in his own head, soul (and teachings), he decided to take it out on 9 lives that unfortunately, were within his walk and reach-leaving family, friends and others grieving and deeply saddened and somber at the thought of such a senseless act of terrorism like such would happen on American soil and moreover-in a church: where the doors are always open.
Feeling impassioned, saddened, and frustrated-yet compelled to speak his thoughts, from his seat (rather than jokes and commentary on politics and social politics), Jon Stewart used his air time last night to give commentary on his feelings behind the Charleston South Carolina massacre, the state of South Carolina and its deep-seated racist past:
“I honestly have nothing other than sadness that once again we have to peer into the abyss of the depraved violence that we do to each other and the nexus of a just gaping racial wound that will not heal yet we pretend doesn’t exist. I’m confident though that by acknowledging it—by staring into it—we still won’t do jack sh|t. That’s us. And that’s the part that blows my mind…What blows my mind is the disparity of response. When we think people that are foreign are going to kill us and us killing ourselves…We invade two countries and spent trillions of dollars and lost thousands of American lives and now fly unmanned death machines over like five or six different counties, all to keep Americans safe. We’ve
got to do whatever we can—we’ll torture people. We’ve got to do whatever we can to keep Americans safe. But nine people shot in a church— ‘Hey, what are you going go to do? Crazy is as crazy is, right?’ That’s the part that, for the life of me, I can’t wrap my head around. And you know it’s going to go down the same path.”
About South Carolina’s reverence for its Confederacy and racist past, Stewart added:
“Nine people were shot in a black church by a white guy who hated them who wanted to start some sort of civil war. The confederate flag flies over South Carolina. And the roads are named for confederate generals. And the white guy is the one who feels like his country is being taken away from him. We’re bringing it on ourselves. And that’s the thing—al Qaeda, ISIS, they’re not shit compared to the damage we can do to ourselves on a regular basis.”
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