I’m sure everyone’s heard by now. Most of you probably know more about it than I do, as I don’t watch TV or read the papers.
Last Saturday, a gunman entered the Cielo Vista mall in El Paso, Texas. When all was said and done he had killed 20 people and injured 26 more. They found a 4 page rant online attributed to the shooter, seems he thought the Mexicans were taking over the country and decided to do something about it. Though note, last I heard the hosting company had taken down the site (8Chan), but I’m sure every newspaper in the world probably has a copy somewhere. And for the record, it is not so much that he posted it there as that people there were supporting it.
But honestly, all this is old hat. How many other shootings or bombings have there been targeting Jews or blacks or whatever other group you choose? Too many of course. So how is this any different?
Well, the difference for me is that it is actually someplace I used to live. I’ve been through Denver once on vacation, but not long enough to say I actually know the place. But I spent 5 years in El Paso. Mind you I was closer to the Sunland Park mall – Cielo Vista was on the far side of the Davis Mountains from me. I think I visited that mall exactly twice in my 5 years, though I did buy a duster there on clearance that I was rather fond of.
My first observation was that the shooter was not from El Paso. When 80% of the town is Hispanic (not Mexican – they were born here) it’s a little hard to hate Hispanics. And of course, you can’t tell the natives from the real Mexicans unless you see the license plate on their car. The people from Juarez just across the river drove like crazy people always running red lights; the ones from further in Mexico were more careful drivers.
My next observation is that Cielo Vista is about as far from the border as you can get and still be in El Paso. I could actually see the border and the river. They were on the other side of the mountains from it. If he was looking for people actually from Mexico, he was in the wrong place.
But then again, he wasn’t looking for that anyway. He should know by now that acts of violence only result in people ridiculing your ideas, not giving them any serious consideration. Really it’s all about his own ego and nothing else.
Don’t get me wrong, I am a conservative. I am in favor of securing our borders – that wasn’t even a strange sentiment in El Paso. And I’m talking about 20 years ago, when Clinton was in office. We were talking about the border “wall” that long ago. I have no use for his segregationist ideas, though if he wants to live somewhere where Hispanics won’t bother him I’m sure he could. I doubt he’d find many in Death Valley, for example.
You’ll have to forgive me, I’m just “processing”. That’s pop psych for saying trying to figure out how I really feel, deep down. Besides the general overall disgust with crazy idiots who resort to violence, of course
