Eastern Catholic Person
I originally posted this on Facebook when I was able to process the news that there had been a shooting at Mercy Hospital in the city where I love, Chicago. I repost it here.
Sisters and brothers, especially those not in Chicago:
I am safe. This happened quite a bit south of where I am. I am still catching up to this news, consumed as I was with work yesterday.
What I will say is that, unlike the Northwestern PhD student who was killed at the bus stop across the street from where I live by a stray bullet from what seems to have been a targeted killing, the Mercy Hospital shooting appears to be a case of domestic violence and misogyny taken to an extreme and lethally combined with a gun in a public place. It is not a symptom of Chicago’s reputation for murder; it is an instantiation of everyday patriarchy from a man with what sounds like a personal history of inability to deal with women in his living and working world as human beings. Grieving the senseless deaths that his moronic actions wrought last night, let us revisit Audre Lorde’s reminder that the ‘fragile man-child’ is a danger to society and that education unto an integrated manhood, which is the task of our communities, is the urgent feminist task in building a world of love and care.
May the Lord God place those who have fallen asleep where all the just repose and forgive them of all sins, voluntary and involuntary. Lord, hear us and have mercy. Most Holy Theotokos, spread your omophorion over us and protect us.
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