Slouching towards Roseburg

I know Roseburg Oregon. I've been there many times. My wife's family farmed there for over 100 years. It's a beautiful, peaceful, friendly place. But a week ago the madness of the gun culture found it and murdered nine innocent people and injured many more. The picture of a woman weeping wearing a Walmart T-shrt that says “Live better” is more than ironic. President Obama was there to commiserate with the families who lost loved ones. That's all he can do and even that brought out the gun nuts who told him he wasn't wanted. That's where we are now in our ungovernable country. Nobody can do anything to stop the violence. You saw the Republican debate of 10 muddled oafs (and one charmless oafess) babble on in their self-importance. Scott Walker, the college dropout whose foreign policy is “beat Ohio State”. Perhaps a singer could set the tone with the Sam Cooke song: “Don't know much about geography, or history, or sociology or economics”. Keynes said that the American contingent that came to Europe after WWI only came to preen and not offer any serious thoughts on keeping the peace and “then returned home to their Texas civilization”. We're too dumb to be governed,” Bill Maher said and we only have to look at ourselves...impatient and out of control..bombing hospitals in Iraq and then lying about it. The clairvoyant novelist Joseph Conrad saw the carnage that was coming. He said “unarmed goodwill is useless against armed malice”. We don't need more guns, we need better people.