It came as a sickening, unwelcome surprise, to some, when a victim of a terrorist attack turned around...and spat on the victims of another terrorist attack.
As with any act of stupidity, your first thought is HOW DARE YOU. Then comes: WHY DID YOU? This applies to every act of violence. As soon as we hear of an assassination, a murder, a bombing, we ask, "Who did it?" and wonder what motivated the person, and how that person got bent.
It does seem like Jesse Hughes is a longtime opinionated asshole. Do we care how he got that way? Or do we ask, what's set him off now, to do something so painfully destructive and foolish? You really want to teach the kids of America NOT to protest? NOT to get things off their chests? Not to do what YOU do, which is to get up in front of a crowd to get your views across?
Even in this Trump-dumped world, where we also tolerate every religious fanatic's rhetoric, from the Jihad-loving Imams to Farrakhan and back, the bilious sneers and curses from Jesse Hughes were reported all over the world. They were even re-reported by all the second-hand and third-hand websites that just re-write things to get banner ad money:
The disaster in France had us all angry and depressed…and also feeling sorry for a crappy band named “Eagles of Death Metal.” They were on stage at the time of the attack and, well, people were just trying to have a good time listening to DEATH METAL.
Now it turns out that this EAGLE of "Death Metal" is more of an OSTRICH, sticking his head in the sand, up to his red neck, refusing to check out WHY there have been protests and what the BENEFIT might be. Like most every other birdbrain, he also swallowed the "Fake News." Yes, The Donald is not wrong. There IS plenty of FAKE NEWS. And Mr. Hughes went ballistic over a doctored photo that was spread through redneck blogs and anywhere the word "snowflake" or "lefty" or "libtard" is sold:
Going back a hundred years, one of the first big silent films ever to hit theaters was called..."INTOLERANCE." D.W. Griffith felt this was a deadly word. It still is. Too bad today's moviegoers only want to see inane cartoons and super hero shit. "INTOLERANCE" is still with us. It causes violence and it reacts to violence.
Funny, after feeling bad for the Eagles of Death Metal, up on stage trying to entertain folks, and being traumatized, I actually listened to one of their albums. No, it wasn't that interesting to me, but my reaction was to reach out, not to slap. As pathetic as it often is, this is more of a human emotion. Rolling Stone "reached out" to put a baby-faced psycho murderer on their cover, apparently to try and understand why a curly-haired cutie fairly assimilated in a college town, would want to kill and maim innocent people watching the Boston Marathon. And right now, the kid who killed over a dozen of his classmates is getting fan mail in prison and marriage proposals. Sick? Or just a weird reaction based on compassion or anger or confusion?
I don't know much about Jesse Hughes. He seems like a good ol' fashioned good ol' boy who screams about Jesus when it suits him, and was a supporter of guns and the 2nd Amendment long before some Muslims came up with their own logic in front of him and his audience.
Did he realize that the Muslims babbling about Allah Akbar were no different than any other Inquisition of intolerance against another religion? Maybe he just felt Holy Wars happen, like shit happens. He's all full of his CHRIST and REDEMPTION and PUNISHMENT fanaticism.
Where did it all lead him? To the same INTOLERANCE and NEGATIVITY it leads many others. To the same strict refusal to see anyone else's view.
Perhaps what set off Jesse (if we still care about WHY, which maybe we need to), is that the kids protesting looked like they were having fun. They were getting their way. They were getting attention and being on TV, and Jesse Hughes is not likely to ever get that kind of attention as a solo artist or with any band. He wasn't invited to sing on "Saturday Night Live" like the guy who fronted the band on stage when the Las Vegas shooter began going nuts.
Here's kids...mere KIDS...delivering speeches on national TV, being taken seriously by reporters, and having their views heard, and even respected. Their view? That maybe classmates shouldn't bring guns to class, and shouldn't have access to them, and nobody should be able to put somebody else in danger. Seems like a good thing.
What would Jesse have wanted in France? That the stage be littered with assault rifles at the ready, so in case of a Muslim attack, he and his band could defend themselves and their audience?
He seems to be saying that gun control didn't stop the actions of an army of religious fanatics so...give up. Let everybody have weapons. Make things WORSE.
It’s a very sad fact that America is so polarized, so literally BLACK AND WHITE, that nobody wants to listen or compromise. Phil Ochs comes to mind: “And so they argue through the night. Black is black. White is white. Walk away both knowing they are right.”
Yeah, but how many have heard of, or are listening to Phil Ochs music? Not even if they re-issue his stuff with a dance beat and vocoder-ize him.
Instead, Jesse Hughes offered this bunch of curses, threats and jibberish, because he saw a "FAKE NEWS" photo that bothered him, and he saw kids getting a day off from school, and didn't think back to his own pain and trauma in France and understand that these kids, far younger and much more sensitive, are SCARED. So he write this scary shit instead:
Who does this guy sound more in line with, the kids talking about gun control, or the Muslim murderers talking Jihad?
INTOLERANCE...gets death and destruction. COMPROMISE gets something better.
Let's stop the paranoia over "they'll take away our guns completely if there are ANY gun laws." That's not going to happen. There IS a second amendment and there IS a place for guns in our society, like it or not. There are sportsmen who like their rifles. There are also people who legitimately fear home invasion. And they should, especially those who own their own homes in areas that don't have a lot of traffic and closed circuit TV cameras.
Let's use some common sense. Ban assault weapons. Ban gizmos that can turn a gun into a rapid-firing weapon of mass destruction. Be efficient about background checks and a waiting period.
Just as you need a driver's license before you can get behind the wheel of a car, gun owners should KNOW the basics of safety and pass a test. They should know the basics of how to use the weapon correctly. The disaster of that kid Lanza in Connecticut was that Mommy’s gun collection was easily available to him. Did she think he couldn’t find the key to a locked cabinet, assuming she even kept it locked?
How about this: guns that will ONLY fire for the owner? Cell phones can lock. So should guns. This isn’t science fiction. It can be done.
It’s been proven that by limiting teenage drivers, by having speed limits, by having rules against drunken driving, car fatalities are lessened. We don't say "Oh, people drive drunk and always will, so let's not put them in jail if they kill people." Or, "People speed anyway, so knock down the speed limit signs."
Time magazine (April 2, 2018 page 32) reported that “handguns were responsible for 90% of homicides in 2016…" Their suggestion: "require every buyer, of any age, to obtain a license that includes a registration of all purchases and at least a modest training program.”
It's sad enough that there are stories every day of some argument where a person had a gun handy and used it. If that person did NOT have the gun, a few words would've been all. Our gun culture makes it “romantic” to carry a gun. The maniac who killed the students in Florida actually wrote that he wanted to be a “school shooter.” He didn’t say a school bomber. There have been televised suicides where people used guns. They didn't say, "Hey everyone, I'm taking poison." They didn't slice their wrists.
The crapathy of saying, “Oh, you can’t prevent anything” is exactly that; crap and apathy. We don’t say, “Oh, let a 12 year-old drive a car.” We don’t say “Ban speed limits, people speed anyway.” We need to use common sense against lethal weapons. We also need to understand that the NRA is just a bunch of fat cats who want to sell something. They could be selling growth hormones or cigarettes or represent pig farmers polluting North Carolina with 14 pounds of manure per pig per day. “Oh, short sighted businessmen,” Joni Mitchell sang, “nothing lasts for long.” President Obama said recently that when something "is not right," and there's resistance to change, you can bet that the reason is the status quo. Somebody's making a profit, pure and simple. In this case it's the NRA, and why should they have any more of a conscience than moneymaking organizations that peddle overpriced pills, that sell pork to China, that use child labor to make shoes, or smuggle drugs?
The kids in Florida are worried there will be another attack; a copycat in their school or some other jackass in a different school. Jesse Hughes doesn’t figure another bunch of ISIS maniacs are going to attack him on a stage? Good for him. Somehow Jesus is on his side, but wasn't on the side of his audience a while ago? Interesting. Is Jesse also going to tell security to walk away and not check for weapons at the door because terrorists will find a way anyway?
There have been several attacks in schools, from Columbine to this latest outrage at Parkland and it needs to stop. And Mr. “Death Metal” needs to think about LIVING. Go back to being an Eagle, Jesse, and stop being an Ostrich.
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