Caffeinated Politics

There’s a point in a nation’s decline when the extraordinary becomes ordinary, when the unthinkable becomes background noise. That line could have been written every day since Inauguration Day 2025. But I write to refer to this past Sunday. And I write regarding the way eight Black children were violently shot to death in Louisiana, and the country mostly yawned. We can argue if those children had been white with blond hair, something more than a moment of silence would have registered from House Speaker Mike Johnson.

Donald Trump did not make a national statement. Nor a national address. He was too busy being owned by the Iranians, who have set the narrative in his needless war. There was no collective pause in our country. Not a single pretense of urgency from the Republican leadership in Washington, who want us to believe they are leaders.

What has taken me aback is the lack of a national reaction. That to me is as much the story as the gun violence itself. I have predicted this for many years. The nation is numb to gun violence. The NRA and the wackos in the nation who fetishize guns are winning. And eight kids are being buried. Black children, especially, barely ripple the surface of public attention. Especially among conservative Republicans.

People often say, “This isn’t who we are.” But the truth is, this is exactly who we’ve allowed ourselves to become. When a mass killing of kids doesn’t command the national attention, doesn’t force Trump to speak directly to the nation, doesn’t make Congress step back from the blood-dripping gun lobby, it means there is something seriously wrong with us. And it is a sordid affair.

Some commentators have pointed out that the United States experiences far more gun deaths than other wealthy nations, and that communities of color disproportionately bear the burden. Others have noted that federal action on gun violence has stalled for years, with Congress repeatedly unable to agree on reforms. Those observations aren’t new. They’re part of the ritual we go through as a nation when guns blaze, people die, and we simply wait for the next headlines about more deaths. Tragedy, commentary, stalemate, forgetfulness.

Wash. Rinse. Repeat.

This is what being numb looks like. This is what moral exhaustion sounds like. This is what a country in denial feels like.

Eight Black children died. They had names and futures. They had jokes and dreams and favorite songs. And yet the national response was so muted it bordered on indifference.

If that doesn’t shake us, what will?

If that doesn’t force us to confront the reality of gun violence, what could?

If that doesn’t make us question what kind of country we are in, then maybe we already know the answer.

Until I need to write this type of column again……..