I have never been ashamed to be an American. Not ever. Until today.

Isn't it funny how soon people forget?
My house will be bulldozed and my gravestone chipped away and there will be nothing left but dust and I will be forgotten. Will you forget my mom and dad when they are gone? Will you forget my brother, especially since he's already been gone for 10 years already? Pictures on Facebook don't fade I guess. Bu if you can forget a person...

What else will you forget?

Shouting "Never Forget!" "Remember the Lusitania!" The cruise liner full of civilians traveling through the war zone in 1915 were torpedoed by German U-boats and in sunk in less than 20 minutes, taking almost 2,000 souls with her. Ask the person closest to you if they "Remember The Lusitania".

The Great War. With a capital G and W. The war to end all wars for is sheer number of dead (the most of any western war at that time) and terror inflicted. A generation of broken men returned. The war to end all wars. But there would be another. Then another. Then another. Then another.

What about the horrors of children paralyzed for life, 4 years old stuck in an iron lungs for month, years? Grown men taken out by a disease that showed no mercy or discrimination. Until there was a preventative cure. Until there was a miracle sent by God or technology or whomever.  Until you didn't want the cure because you forgot about the leg braces and dead kids. You didn't want the shot to stop it. You didn't want it because you forgot.

What about the hate that grew into a behemoth that nearly devoured all of Europe? A hate that started so small, like a whisper, in beer halls and living rooms... we just want to be better, our leaders can take us there and bring us back to what we once were and sure people thought things and said things that were hate-fill but they didn't mean it really but there was hate, actual hate and with a little care and attention it grew and grew then just wearing the star on your arm and a brick through the window but it's ok we're ok and not everyone thinks that way and then they come for you in the night or your neighbor thank God it's the neighbor and not me and then it's just a ghetto and it's just work camp and we all will work and work and work and work and the smoke rises high into the sky and... Did you forget that too?

How about this one? Bath, Michigan and Andrew Kehoe murdered his wife, set fire to his home, exploded bombs at the nearby school then exploded his dynamite filled car with him inside it.  45 people died, most of them kids under the age of 14. Like the exploded Ryder rental truck 68 years later that killed 168 people, 19 children from the daycare, at the World Trade Center in Oklahoma City. Or this one? I was sitting in English class when 12 miles down the road, two boys had gone into their high school and taken out people, one by one, to make them pay. I crawled out a window and hitched a ride so I wouldn't be stuck in lock down for the rest of the day. Do you remember those

13 people? Some dick killed 33 people at his school in Virginia.  Do you remember the deadliest mass shooting in US history? Maybe, until the newest, even more deadly mass shooting in US history happened because some asshole had a problem with men who loved other men and killed 49 people to make them pay with his semi-automatic gun. What about a 20 year old boy who killed his mother then went to the local elementary school and started shooting? How soon did you forget dead 6 year olds strewn across a playground like fallen leaves. Kindergarteners now mulch in a garden? How can you forget 20 dead babies on the ground?
How soon they forget men and women jumping from 100 stories up because hey, it's better than burning to death in my office chair... You scream and yell about the terrorist and spout hate about Muslims and refugees but do you remember how you felt that day?

Why cant you remember how we felt that day that horrible thing happen? You remember? That one really horrible thing that really wrung out your heart? That day we were able to all be on the same, giant page. When there was no animosity or greed. No hate, just sadness. We were one. We were going to come together and figure it out, as we held each other in unfathomable grief and make some decisions so we could not let it happen again. But we forgot that we are all the same and we can only talk about different different different and what is best for me, not you or anyone else.


Who cares about your rape? Who cares about your sexual assault? We don't care that these people or those people need our help. They might live here or in another country but we don't give one fuck.  The guy who killed her had already had 3 DUIs but what the fuck ever.  Fuck your sons and daughters; there's a war to fight! And another! And another! Science might have proven a miracle but not for my kid; measles for all! Fuck your dead children of every age and color! Fuck the Muslims and the gays and the blacks and that different person right there because it's about the important people! The Us. The We. They aren't included in The Us. It's just Us.


And now, we are divided. There is no talking about it. You are on one side of this river or the other. Us and our short memories continue to make the SAME GODDAMN MISTAKES.


And if you can forget all of that, what else will you forget?