Kate Hudson Writes a Poem

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She posted it on her Instagram account a few days ago:

Shot in the Dark

When the silver drops who wins

Shot in the dark
Why

Haven't we seen this story for too long

Haven't we lived this scene centuries long

Haven't we tired of too many wrongs

When does it end

When does one see
I am you and you are me
We live together intrinsically spiritually realistically

And yet we continue to separate, abominate, hate and
Hate.

Why

I need to believe

To hope

To reach for faith

That we as humans can create the space

Where change can be embraced.

Love is the lesson

But how do we teach when shot in the dark

Scared with guns drawn

How do we teach when one has never felt love as a spark

Violence on violence has never made change

Only headlines to read and families that grieve

Violence on violence makes us fall to our knees

Question our faith

Shake our heads in disbelief

But believe it now for this anger is real

We know cause we see it rise

Like oxygen to fire it ignites a raging burning storm

Angry until sadness appears

Angry until we fall into tears

we can't hold this weight for too long

It infects our souls and then fear wins the debate.

We can't let that win

It destroys and discriminates

We can't let fear rule

For then we are too responsible for a world too cruel

Fear is who takes a shot in the dark

And we must stop sitting back and watching this silver drop

The punctuation is hers, not mine. There are only three periods - at the ends of lines 12, 18 and 34.

Why?

I have no idea. But I'm sure she'd place well in a Black Lives Matter sponsored poetry slam.

Speaking of which, here is her explanation for the context: 

These last few months have brought so much sadness. From Alton Sterling, Philando Castile, Orlando shooting, Dallas, to terrorist attacks of late Bangladesh, Istanbul, Baghdad, Somalia. Everyday there is violence like this reported and not reported. It becomes overwhelming that there could be such hatred and senseless killing. When I can’t make sense of things I just start to write. I don’t usually share my writing but I felt a desire to put this out there. Peace.

Personally, I'd like a moratorium on the use of "senseless" as in "senseless killing" or "senseless violence." On the strict meaning of the term, every example mentioned had sense behind it. In the case of Philando Castille, a policeman shot a robbery suspect who he thought was reaching for his gun. In Dallas, a black supremacist wanted to kill as many non-blacks policeman as possible for revenge or to ignite a race war, etc. In Bangladesh, Muslim terrorists wanted to murder non-Muslims in a quasi-public way so as to advance the cause of a world caliphate.

Of course the moral value system underlying the sense in each case is different, which is why lumping them all together as "senseless" or indeed, lumping them together at all is not helpful.   

And not to further nitpick, but violence on violence has often made change. Or more to the point, violence has often made change. For better and for worse.

Was Kate Hudson drawing a moral equivalence between the black supremacist who shot those five cops and . . . those five cops? Well, she did say violence on violence, didn't she?

If so, that's senseless.

"I am you and you are me"

Are we are all in this together?

I'm crying.