March For Our Lives: Hyannis, March 24

An American Song 2018
by James W. Kershner

It’s got to have been getting worse.

I don’t remember this when I was young.

Yes, they shot JFK, but that was bizarre.

We just didn’t act like that over here,

except on TV, with cowboys and Indians.

Of course, there have always been shootings

From the Boston Massacre to Wounded Knee,

and the battles of Gettysburg and Antietam:

the critical mass of American shootings.

When is enough enough?

The sixties were times for assassinations:

Malcolm X and Medgar Evers,

Martin Luther King and RFK.

That Texas tower shooting killed so many,

but it was an anomaly, wasn’t it?

Then the Kent State shootings shocked us all

And Jackson State, where the victims were black.

The students were protesting an evil war,

and the National Guard was killing the students.

When is enough enough?

Then someone shot 22 folks at McDonalds.

You want fries with your mass murder?

And that guy who went postal in Oklahoma

killed 15 coworkers in 15 minutes

Another man killed 23 in a Texas cafeteria.

Then there was Columbine in ’99,

Now it’s students killing other students.

A shocked nation offered moments of silence,

We all sent our thoughts and our prayers.

When is enough enough?

Meanwhile, in America’s cities,

cops are quietly killing black men

who they pull over for “driving while black.”

Apparently black lives don’t matter.

Then Virginia Tech scares everyone to death;

The freaky image on the Facebook page.

How many likes for mowing down classmates?

Then it seemed to be everywhere.

Breaking news about broken lives.

When is enough enough?

Sandy Hook made it all the worse:

Little children were shot in school.

Now we teach them to shelter in place

in the safe zone away from the windows,

like duck and cover drills in the Cold War Era.

Then more black men are killed by white cops:

What’s going in America?

Michael Brown and Eric Garner,

Walter Scott and Freddy Gray, and…

When is enough enough?

Oh my God, what’s happening now?

They’re shooting folks in a famous black church.

More black lives; what’s the matter?

How can you shoot people when they are praying?

Then these videos start going viral

More white cops killing more black men

It’s on video again and again.

Demonstrations explode into gunfire

A lone sniper mows down five cops

When is enough enough?

Then Orlando took us over the top.

Fifty Pulses ceasing to beat.

How can you kill people while they are dancing?

Blood spills all over their rainbow flag.

Then in Las Vegas, even more victims

mowed down at a concert with an AR-15

shooting from a window at the Mandalay Bay.

Suddenly everyone talks about bump stocks,

but just like before, nothing gets done.

When is enough enough?

Marjorie Stoneman Douglas was a hero

She changed the laws to save the Everglades

But who on Earth will save the children?

A gunman kills 17 students and staff

at the Florida school that bears her name.

The old folks send their thoughts and their prayers

But it’s the students who finally “call BS”

The surviving students demand the laws change.

Enough is enough, the students say.

Enough is finally enough.