Way Too Much Hugging

One of the advantages of an anonymous blog is you can say what you're really thinking without worrying about your friends chastising you or your mailbox getting filled with hate mail or rotten fish. 

The fact is, we are going to have to live with indiscriminate shootings of innocent citizens, some of them children, and likely bombings and who knows what other form of mass killings for the foreseeable future. 

So the Phantom would like to explore our options for responding to this new reality.

Let us first explore what we might want to avoid: Grief counselors. 

What, exactly, are grief counselors, who we are always told will be provided after these attacks?  What, exactly do they do or say? Are they certified in some way? Certified grief counselors? Do they do any good at all?  Why do the mayors or school principals always look so upbeat when they announce, well we've had thirty eight year olds murdered, but we've arranged to have grief counselors visit the school tomorrow. So, there: that's taken care of. Aren't I a good mayor?

And shrines. No more flowers or teddy bears left at the site.   Really, who are these messages and toys really for? Spare us. They are simply a mess to clean up and what do they do with all this stuff?  

And no more decals, T shirts or other commercial products like all the "Boston Strong" stuff after the Marathon bombing. What did that mean? Boston strong. "We" are "strong" in the face of two maniacs blowing the legs off innocent bystanders and killing children at the finish line.  Give me your $2 and I'll give you this decal for your car and we can all feel strong and resolute. Pluleeeze.

And, most of all:  hugging. Please.  Do we really need another photo of people hugging and sobbing and consoling each other?  Are we not growing just a little inured to the sight of people hugging?

And the inevitable talk about banning assault rifles. Just stop it. Won't ever happen.  These guns, it turns out, are made for mayhem. Their bullets are high velocity but light weight which means when the hit a human body they tumble and create a big shock wave and maximal tissue and organ damage. You wouldn't want to hunt with one, unless you wanted the animal you shot to be pre-shredded. 

Casting about for models, the Phantom has been struck by the people of London and the way they bore up under the German blitz during WWII.  The Phantom is sure there was a lot of marketing and spin about the plucky, unflappable Brits, when, in fact there must have been great wailing and sobbing and anger not just at Hitler but at Churchill, but that's not what you saw on the news. On the news, they were plucky. And they never hugged. Mercifully, not a single pair of huggers after their home was blown to smithereens. 

That's what the Phantom hopes we can emulate here in America. Plucky post massacre pluck.  No hugging. No bringing of flowers to makeshift shrines. No decals. Just pluck.

Wouldn't that be a better way of dealing?  And, oh, yes, news coverage limited to one day, then move on.  

That way we can be ready for the next one.