Les Mots Justes

                         Or, how to say the 'unsayable' ??!!

    Being at 'a loss for words' is seldom my lot.  However, lately I have struggled to capture the vowels, consonants, nouns, verbs that could carry the freight for expressing the impact of the scenes that have been unfolding at warp speed.  French: Les Mots Justes,  "the precise words" are elusive.

    Paris on November 13 was not the 'beginning' of the madness, nor , unfortunately, will the murders in California be the last.  Just prior to those were the bombings in Beruit, and ...., and ... as well as mass murders, almost daily.  Beyond that, come literally countless local shootings.  Egregious violence and inhumanity have been on display since humanity began.  But there is something about the past dozen-plus years that portends a tilt towards a new kind of barbarity.

   Propensity for "Violence" is not a racial or cultural monopoly.  In the United States, perpetrators come within an array of racial, ethnic and religious groupings.  "Motivations" and "causes" also vary widely . . . drugs, vengeance, racial, mental disorders, jihadist, and, as might have once been  termed,  'plain old meanness and evil'. 

      Whether the killings originate as societal violence or international terrorism, a climate of fear and distrust and radical counter-measures is emerging.  And, there are opportunists more than willing to 'stir the pot' of societal anxieties for their own aggrandizement. As an example, in the aftermath of the Paris attacks, the focus on barring Syrian refugees within several American states seemed a knee jerk 'answer'.  Many years ago, an esteemed historian, Richard Hofstedter, identified a legacy of The Paranoid Style in American Politics.  Current Presidential campaigning  could offer opportunity for thoughtful approaches for addressing the violence.  Such has been largely lacking thus far. 

    So, how do 'civilized' people of good will respond in this climate?  The admonition to be 'wise as serpents and harmless as doves' comes to mind. Living that becomes another challenge.
President Roosevelt's 1933 assertion that  "the only thing we have to fear is Fear itself" is still valid.  Such is not being naive; nor is it capitulation to barbarism.  

    Easy answers and posturing have limited 'shelf life'.  Prudence is always appropriate. The very randomness of violence heightens the anxiety.  Not knowingly putting oneself in 'harm's way' can be a good start.  But just 'going about one's own business' has not always been 'safe'.  Self-defense has increasingly come to mean
concealed or open carry weaponry. Instances of excessive force by sworn law enforcement have polluted trust among many.

    For me, I'm back to Mark Errelli's lyrics cited in an earlier post:
"Sometimes injustice and indifference are the only things I see. But I refuse to let my hope become the latest casualty. . . . And, if I can't change the world, I'll change the world within my reach."

     Satchel