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May 25, 2022Liked by Timothy Burke

Though, to be truthful, I’m having a hard time feeling empathy for those priests of the Great God Gun who begin their action upon (against) the world with an act of intimate violence against my gender, before they ever turn the barrel upon other minor—or even major—priests. I was raised in this culture along with you, and arguably in its darker heart, Tim. Before men confront men, they often destroy women (and children) so they can get a clearer shot. It’s no accident that the murderer of yesterday shot his grandmother first, or the Sandy Hook murderer killed his mother. I’ve often thought that Dylan Klebold’s mother was fortunate to survive the day he and his buddy Eric decided to take their rage to school. So pardon me if the Cult looks even scarier from outside its doors—where even the conservative gun gals must worship, whatever access they think they have been given to its vestibule. As for the children who were getting excited for summer vacation and the (female) teachers who tried to throw their bodies in between the gunman-priest and their pupils, can we agree that none of them needed to feel empathy in that moment, for a person who calmly told 10 year olds they were going to die?

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