By Jacob Richards
on Wednesday Charlie Kirk was assassinated.
that same day two children were shot in a school shooting in Evergreen Colorado and at least 72 civilians were killed in Gaza.
it was an average day. Except Kirk wasn’t the average victim of violence in our system. He was a straight famous white male.
even the suspected shooter was average: straight, young, white male, obsessed with guns, radicalized online (google groyper)
but what is an average day?
the average day in America is violence.
statistically 54 Americans were murdered,
3 were killed by law enforcement most likely people of color,
17 died in American prisons and jails again mostly non-white Americans,
11500 American households were evicted by armed agents of the state,
9600 people mostly women and children were the victims of domestic violence, 5000 DV calls went unresponded to,
1200 people were kidnapped by ICE, their families left without income and fathers and mothers,
132 commited suicide, disproportionately LGBTQ+ youth.
112 met their maker in automobile accidents
14 died at work
32 hate crimes were reported
2.7 billion tax-dollars were spent on war and weapons, though we are not directly involved in any major conflicts.
globally, 6000 people died from the lack of clean water and sanitation, an easily fixable problem if our economic system was geared to human need instead of profits,
1600 succumb to malaria, an easily preventable disease,
640 died in an armed conflict, while America supplies weapons to at least one faction, sometimes both,
air pollution contributed to another 22,000 deaths on Wednesday,
24,657 people died of starvation and malnutrition, while half of all food in the U.S. goes to waste.
Wednesday, was by all statistical analysts an average day.
a day like any other,
wherein poor people,
people of color,
people of the global south,
women and queer folks
daily pay the price to the political systems that uphold capitalism, white supremacy, and imperialism.
and they died with no outrage.
no proclamations by politicians.
no flags at half mass,
no debates
no feigned outrage
no manhunts.
no thoughts and prayer.
just silence.
The Revolutionist 