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Or, maybe it is like crossing your fingers when they
are about to read the winning Lotto number. Or, maybe it is
more like you don't wear anything red on Friday the 13th.
Just maybe...just maybe it has the indelible power to
transform and fix anything broken as when you wish upon a
shooting star.
The phrase is, "Thoughts And Prayers", aka: "T.A.P!"
That banal phrase is now the password that is utilized by
any feckless politico when he or she is faced with the
daunting task of facing the devastation of gun violence.
Whenever a cowering politico is caught in the
headlights of the media glare and is asked for a statement
about any of the horrendous mass shootings, school or
otherwise, it is a safe bet that he can avoid the media
glare and just utter, with a contrite facial expression and
a humble voice, "My thoughts and prayers are with you and
the grieving families."
It does not matter about the bloody carnage of the
massacre nor does it matter that the politico always tries
to run for cover when he or she was cornered and asked to do
something about gun violence or better background checks.
Their first knee jerk response seems to be, "T.A.P!"
The unwritten political rule seems to be that once you
utter, "T.A.P!" you are home safe!
T.A.P! is like the Get Out Of Jail Free Card when you
play Monopoly. When you got it baby, you can wipe your brow
and get on with the game!
Like lemmings to the cliff, the politicos know that if
they want to stay in the good graces of the NRA and keep
that blood-stained money coming into their political coffers
that they must learn a basic Political 101 of empty jargon
and that is, "T.A.P!"
Without knowing and using, "T.A.P!" you are facing
possible expulsion from the NRA money donation list.
If you face angry crowds at your town hall
meetings...simply smile and say, "T.A.P!"
If you face a mob of reporters wanting to get an exclusive
from you as to your position on gun control or sane
background checks or banning the use of military assault
rifles, take the easy way out and simply stand your ground
and yell, "T.A.P!"
It works like a charm. More powerful than facing a
fanged Dracula with a silver cross in your outstretched arm.
Better than aspirin for a headache. Better than water
for a parched throat. Better than cornbread eaten with
collard greens and smoked ham hocks!
That is the incredible and amazing power of, "T.A.P!"
If you could have patented and bottled, "T.A.P!" you
would be into some serious Moolah by now. It is a mantra
that now has evolved into a half life of its own.
By now, those who are not clueless have seen that
uttering the password, "T.A.P!" means nothing whatsoever
because its once inherent power has been totally diluted by
those scalawags who could do something but choose not to do
so because of their abject fear of the mouse that
roared...the NRA.
Imagine an entire Republican Congress and a moronic
Republican President being held captive to a radical
Republican splinter group called the National Rifle
Association.
But...all too truthful and embarrassing to witness, the GOP
has abdicated any remote sense that they have the moral
backbone to stand up to the moneyed bullying of the NRA.
So, as a weak substitute for courage, the GOP defaults
to using, "T.A.P!" anytime it is confronted with the grim
reality that gun violence requires immediate and
transformative action or others will simply die in their
schools and churches and factories because a gutless
Congress has been punked into believing that the NRA has
them by the throat.
Sure, there maybe times when offering condolences with
the phrase, "T.A.P!" may be appropriate and in good taste
but now is not that time. The time is now for substantial
and systemic changes to the gun culture in this gun drenched
society.
Americans have been mentally cauterized and have
developed a high level of tolerance for all things that go,
POW! or BOOM! or RAT-A-TAT-TAT!
From the time that illegal immigrants from Europe first
came to these American shores and practically decimated the
Native Americans, tamed the Wild West by the six-shooter,
keep in subjugation African-Americans as slaves for hundred
of years, glorified violence in the fabled American Western,
the ever presence of guns in Hollywood productions of
detective movies, spy movies, military movies, dramas and
even comedies and cartoons, all have made plentiful the
copious and gratuitous use of guns, guns and more guns.
The best-selling video games are jammed packed with
scenes of graphic violence hurled against "others" or women
or even simply wanton violence by which you can rack up
winning points for having the biggest and bloodiest body
counts!
"T.A.P!" is a cruel copout from doing the hard and
tough work of telling the gun buying public that you do not
need an AR-15 to hunt deer or protect your house.
"T.A.P!" buys you time so that you hope that when the
current furor about the current mass shooting is over that
people will forget and move on to the next crisis...or mass
shooting and when that happens, and it will, the "T.A.P!"
people will dutifully dust off their suits and pose for the
cameras and when all is in place, they will say with
contrite hearts and bowed heads, "T.A.P!"
Contact Lafe Tolliver at
tolliver@juno.com |
