I've been thinking a lot about the first person plural pronoun we as in this is not who we are.

People are beginning to push back by responding with this is who we are.

I've said it myself in the past.

This is precisely who we are.

In his remarks following the massacre of 19 children into adults in Texas,

President Biden said, why are we willing to live with this carnage?

Why do we keep letting this happen?

Where in God's name is our backbone?

Fred Gutenberg said this was predictable and preventable and the next one is predictable.

And then channeling our collective rage, he said, we are fucking failing our children.

I've got to be honest, this is beginning to feel almost ritualistic.

The worst horror is inflicted and we're shocked and devastated and developed by a wordless rage.

But it all seems to be for nothing.

The shock and horror and rage lead to nothing except the next inevitable horror that yes,

should be in a sane country, preventable.

But is it really we who are responsible or are we willing to live with this carnage?

We know that most of us are not.

Most of us would go to great lengths to make sure this never happens again.

Most of us would happily trade every last Republican who's willing to sacrifice our children

on the altar of their grotesque ambitions for even one of those lives.

Is this what America is?

Infatically yes, this is where American exceptionalism has let us.

...