First I was going to excuse myself from writing at all. My blogging colleagues at Round Seventeen and Ad Contrarian take Friday off. Readership always sucks on Friday and is worse in the summer when so many people decide to work from home or take a "Summer Friday."
Of course, the nine people shot dead by a white racist in a Charleston church will never see a Summer Friday, or a Winter Friday. Or even a rainy Monday in February. They're dead.
The blog fivethirtyeight.com reports that black people in America are killed at 12 times the rate of people in other developing countries.
But listen, we have work to do.
My Facebook trending newsfeed has these as three top stories.
- The graduating class of Portsmouth High School performed a flash mob to Taylor Swift's "Shake it Off."
- A semi-driver on I55 fell asleep at the wheel before crashing into 13 cars.
- The Coney Island Mermaid Parade will be held this Sunday in Brooklyn.
Meanwhile, South Carolina still flies the Confederate flag, a flag as steeped in racial hatred and violence as the swastika.
Guns are available everywhere for little more than the price of a coffee run at Starbucks.
And we go on.
No one throws bombs.
There seems to be nothing anyone can do to stop the killing.
So we flash mob. Dress as a mermaid. Do our work. Watch sports on racist TV networks and go on our way.
No wonder I can't write this morning.
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