To the editor:

In the 1985 movie Brazil, a dark comedy set in a dystopian society, a bomb goes off in a restaurant. Accustomed to terrorist attacks, survivors continue eating as if nothing happened.

A CBS News poll conducted a week after the Uvalde massacre found that 15% of Democrats, 27% of Independents and 42% of Republicans agreed that school shootings are “unfortunately, something we have to accept as part of a free society.”

Much like the Brazil diners, for these individuals, school massacres are the unfortunate yet tolerable price to pay for the right to own AR-15s, weapons of mass destruction. After every school slaughter we casually recite the now-perfunctory “thoughts and prayers,” guns sales spike, then it’s back to business as usual.

The Inca civilization (late 13th century to the 1532 Spanish conquest) sacrificed children to its gods. Anthropologists suggest they were offered to deities in the hope of mitigating natural disasters: epidemics, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and droughts.

We sacrifice our children to the NRA, the gun industry (via politicians who accept their blood money) and a Second Amendment interpretation that permits civilians to posses military-style firearms for no rational purpose and horrific results.

The Incas strangled, smashed in the skulls, asphyxiated and buried alive their child sacrifices. We commit these barbaric offerings shredding children’s bodies into unrecognizable pieces with weapons of war.

When asked what he might say to the families of children massacred in Uvalde, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (Republican) stated: “I believe God always has a plan. Life is short no matter what it is.” Apparently responsible leadership isn’t part of that plan.

George J. Bryjak

Bloomingdale

–

Sources

–

“Brazil, film and plot synopsis” (accessed 2022) Movie House Memories, www.moviehousememories.com

De Pinto, D., F. Backus and A. Salvanto (2022) “CBS News Poll – June 1-3” CBS News, www.cbsnews.com

Faux, J. (2012) “Hail the conquering gods: ritual sacrifice of children in Inca society,” Volume III, Issue 1, Journal of Contemporary Anthropology, Department of Anthropology, Purdue University, https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/jca/about.html

Tumulty, K. (2022) “Opinion: Texas AG Paxton’s shameful Uvalde cop-out: “God always has a plan,'” June 19, The Washington Post, www.washingtonpost.com