forgetting the Orlando massacre

Last night, about 1,000 people gathered here in Northampton outside City Hall as a means of expressing their grief and anger at the mass shooting in a gay bar in Orlando, Fla., that began at 2 a.m. Sunday and left 49 people dead. [Police Department photo]

Northampton is largely known as a gay-friendly destination, so the sympathy is understandable in those terms. But the sympathy, for the moment, is not limited to those who share the sexual leanings of those killed and injured in Orlando. There have been gatherings across the country in preparation for forgetting about the whole thing ... again.

Slaughter is slaughter and people are people. Not perfect people or imperfect people, just people. People come first on any humane yardstick. Agendas, of whatever sort, come later. You don't need to be homosexual or heterosexual to know that.

I have to say that I am somehow embarrassed by my fatigue. I am just plain tired of the arrogance that attends on one group or philosophy dictating to another. Whether my neighbor fucks doorknobs or is bound and determined to revise his or her sex ... well, as long as the direction is not palpably harmful ... so the fuck what?! And to those who suggest any of this is against god's will, I wonder if they ever stop to consider that imposing their version of god's will might equally be apostasy in the eyes of someone worshiping another god. Righteousness and outrage ... I have to admit it tires me out.

Please yell at someone else.