Once again, someone, (another young, black man), whom most of us would never have heard of, is brought to the infamous forefront of public attention due to the worst of circumstances, his brutal, videoed beating by policemen who did not believe, as Hieronymus Bosch, “that everyone matters, or no one matters”.  As always, in the mind-numbing preponderance of similar instances, there was an impromptu, public memorial of piled flowers and candles and photos, outraged op-eds by the leftwing media and contrary or less than by the right, the mandatory shit ton of worthless thoughts and prayers and a grand-standing, televised church memorial.  The cherry atop this particular, reactionary cake will be the attendance of Tyre’s parents at Tuesday night’s State of the Union Address.  Certainly, they have the right to decline the invitation, but politicians with agendas, no matter how righteous, can be very persuasive.  Joe Biden, the acknowledged griever-in-chief, will, no doubt, pick at the barely formed scab of the Wells family’s tragedy to drive home the obviousness of our broken policing, but the theater of it all will be the decision by crackpot Republicans, who will be otherwise sitting on unclapping hands, as to whether, in this one instance, to join the rest of the gallery in a teary-eyed ovation.

Sadly, that palpable tension in the House chamber next Tuesday is the essence of the problem.  We, humans, are innately tribal and too many of us have simply lost our humanity.  The lack of caring about one another is everywhere; politics…yeah; education…duh; economy…fuckin’ a; and religion, (the motivation behind the killing of more people every day in the name of some magical deity or other than all of the hyped-up cops combined)…holy crap.  Rest in peace, Tyre.