- I wrote this poem at the end of last year, a year bloodied by mass shootings, police violence, terrorism and war:
GUNFIRE
...
Someone picks up a gun and points it,
At some famous face they think they know,
Then pulls the trigger —
The bullet nicks the heart of the world
And we all bleed.
...
Someone picks up a gun and points it,
At the head they live inside
Then pulls the trigger —
The world explodes
And we all sit in darkness.
...
Someone picks up a gun and points it,
At the person they once loved most,
Then pulls the trigger —
“I Love You” now has two meanings
And no one can tell which one.
...
Someone picks up a gun and points it,
Looks at faces of passing strangers
Then pulls the trigger —
AgainandAgainandAgainandAgain
For God, for Country, for Fame.
...
Someone picks up a gun and points it,
At some soldier-boy with a gun
Then pulls the trigger —
In nightmares sometimes they kill Hitler,
And sometimes the face is their own.
...
Someone picks up a gun and points it,
This time they’re looking at you
Then pulls the trigger —
Too late to stop the madness
All your chances just bled out.
- Ranging in age from 10 to 78, here are just a few better-known names, out of the millions of forgotten victims, who have died by gunfire:
Alexander Hamilton
49 years old
Co-author of The Federalist Papers, first US Secretary of the Treasury. Challenged by Aaron Burr to a duel because a newspaper reported Hamilton had called Burr “the most unfit and dangerous man of the community.” Hamilton refused to confirm or deny it. They met July 11, 1804. Hamilton missed, but Burr fatally shot him. He died July 12.
Spencer Perceval
49 years old
Only British Prime Minister to be assassinated. The evening of May 11, 1812, as Perceval entered the lobby of the House of Commons, a man stepped forward, drew a pistol and shot him in the chest. The assassin was a merchant who believed he had been unjustly imprisoned in Russia and was entitled to compensation from the government, but all his petitions had been rejected.
Abraham Lincoln
56 years old
16th US President. Six days after Lee’s surrender at Appomattox, he was shot in the back of the head by John Wilkes Booth, April 14, 1865 and died April 15
Vincent Van Gogh
37 years old
Dutch painter, now widely regarded as one of the great artists. His paintings, even those done after an artistic breakthrough in Arles in 1888, were not appreciated until after his death. After years of anxiety and bouts of mental illness, he died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound on July 29, 1890.
Archduke Ferdinand of Austria
50 years old
Heir presumptive to the Austro-Hungarian throne, he and his wife, Sophie, were shot to death June 28, 1914, by a Black Hand assassin, after an attempt to bomb their vehicle failed. Their deaths caused Austria-Hungary’s declaration of war against Serbia, which started World War I, in which 11 million military personnel and about 7 million civilians were killed.
Jean Jaurès
54 years old
Leader of the French Socialist Party. An outspoken antimilitarist, Jaurès was assassinated at the outbreak of World War I, on July 31, 1914, by a French nationalist. Jaurès was to attend a conference in August of the International, to try to dissuade the belligerents from going ahead with the war. His assassin, not tried until after the war, was acquitted.
Charles Sorley
21 years old
Promising poet — killed by a sniper bullet — October 1915
His last poem:
When you see millions of the mouthless dead
...
When you see millions of the mouthless dead
Across your dreams in pale battalions go,
Say not soft things as other men have said,
That you’ll remember. For you need not so.
Give them not praise. For, deaf, how should they know
It is not curses heaped on each gashed head?
Nor tears. Their blind eyes see not your tears flow.
Nor honour. It is easy to be dead.
Say only this, ‘They are dead.’ Then add thereto,
‘Yet many a better one has died before.’
Then, scanning all the o’ercrowded mass, should you
Perceive one face that you loved heretofore,
It is a spook. None wears the face you knew.
Great death has made all his for evermore.
Emiliano Zapata
39 years old
Leader of the Mexican peasant revolution in Morelos. He attempted to recruit an opposition general to the cause, but on April 10, 1919, the general came to their arranged meeting with his men, who riddled Zapata’s body with bullets.
Federico García Lorca
38 years old
One of Spain’s greatest poets and dramatists, shot without trial by supporters of General Francisco Franco on August 19 or 20, 1936, in Granada, during the Spanish Civil War.
Ernst von Rath
29 years old
A minor Nazi diplomat, shot five times by a 17 year old Polish Jewish assassin, who wanted to avenge the wrongs done to his family and the Jewish people, in Paris on November 7, 1938. The tragedy is that Von Rath’s assassination was used by the Nazis as an excuse for Kristallnacht, “The Night of Broken Glass,” a massive coordinated attack on Jewish synagogues and businesses throughout the Reich, during which 25,000 Jewish men were rounded up and later sent to concentration camps.
Mahatma Gandhi
78 years old
Preeminent Indian independence movement leader, Gandhi inspired countless civil rights and freedom movements across the world by his use of nonviolent civil disobedience and hunger strikes to overcome British opposition. A Hindu nationalist assassinated Gandhi January 30,1948, firing three bullets into his chest at point-blank range.
Patrice Lumumba
35 years old
Mouvement national congolais (MNC) leader, first democratically elected Prime Minister of the Congo. Deposed in a coup d’état, brutally beaten and tortured before being shot, probably on January 17, 1961. The CIA was almost certainly involved behind the scenes, and Belgian officers had command of the firing squads.
Medgar Evers
37 years old
Civil Rights activist, worked on desegregating schools, voting rights and registration, economic opportunity, and access to public facilities. Shot in the back and killed by a member of anti-integration White Citizens’ Council on June 12, 1963. After two all-white juries failed to reach verdicts, his killer was finally convicted in 1994.
NgôĐình Diệm
62 years old
Vietnamese President. In 1955, he deposed Bảo Đại and established the first Republic of Vietnam (RVN) in South Vietnam. After constant religious protests and non-violent resistances, Diệm was assassinated by an aide to the leader of Army of Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) during a coup d’état sanctioned by the US, on November 2, 1963. His death led to collapse of the first Republic, and increasing US involvement in Vietnam.
John F Kennedy
46 years old
35th US President, hit by sniper bullets fired at his open car in Dallas,Texas, November 22, 1963. Pronounced dead 30 minutes later at the hospital. Mrs. Kennedy was in the car next to her husband, as well as Texas Governor Connally, who was also shot and wounded.
Malcolm X, aka Malik el-Shabazz
39 years old
Civil rights leader, Nation of Islam spokesman from 1952-64, when he repudiated its teaching, and embraced Sunni Islam. Shot to death by three Nation of Islam members on February 21, 1965.
Martin Luther King Jr
39 years old
Civil rights leader, co-founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), killed by a sniper’s bullet on April 4, 1968.
Robert F “Bobby” Kennedy
42 years old
US Attorney General (61-64), US Senator (D-NY 65-68). Because of his support of Israel, he was shot 3 times by a 24-year-old Palestinian, while campaigning for President in California, died June 6, 1968.
Leo Ryan
53 years old
As chair of California Assembly Committee on Prison Reform in 1970, he used a pseudonym to be arrested and see California’s prison system firsthand, and spent 10 days in Folsom Prison. As a US Congressman (D-CA), in 1978, Ryan went to investigate accusations against the Jim Jones Peoples Temple in Guyana. He was shot to death, along with three journalists, by Peoples Temple members escorting his group on the plane to Jonestown, November 18, 1978. Over 900 Peoples Temple members also died that day in a mass suicide/murder ordered by Jim Jones.
Harvey Milk
48 years old
Gay Rights Activist, elected to San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors, one of first openly gay officials in the US. Shot in the chest by a former member of the Board of Supervisors using a .38 revolver, who also killed SF Mayor George Moscone, on November 27, 1978.
Dorothy Stratten
20 years old
Model and Actress (They All Laughed), on August 14, 1980, shot to death by her jealous ex-husband before he turned the gun on himself
John Lennon
40 years old
Shot 4 times on December 8, 1980, as he was entering the Dakota, a NYC landmark building where he lived. Lennon had just returned from Record Plant Studio with his wife, Yoko Ono. Pronounced dead on arrival at Roosevelt Hospital.
The playfully sung, yet prophetic, lyrics of what is believed to be his last song, from a rough cut recording made that night:
I Don’t Wanna Face It
…
Say, you’re looking for a place to go
Where nobody knows your name
You’re looking for oblivion
With one eye on the hall of fame
...
I don’t wanna face it, oh no
I don’t wanna face it, no no, no no
Well, I can dish it out
But I just can’t take it
...
You’re looking for some peace and love
Leader of a big old band
You wanna save humanity
But it’s people that you just can’t stand
...
I don’t wanna face it, oh no
I don’t wanna face it, no no, no no
Well, I can sing for my supper
But I just can’t make it
…
Well, say, you’re lookin’ for a world of truth
Trying to find a better way
The time has come to see yourself
But you always look the other way
...
I don’t wanna face it, oh no
I don’t wanna face it, no no, no no
Well I can see the promised land
And I know I can make it
...
Yeah, I don’t wanna face it
I don’t wanna face it, oh no
Face it
I don’t wanna face it, no
...
I just can't face it no more
Every time I look in the mirror
I don't see anybody there — whoo!
Marvin Gaye
44 years old
R&B singer/musician/songwriter (I Heard It Through the Grapevine,What’s Going On), Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. When he tried to intervene in an argument between his parents, he was shot twice by his father, once through the heart, on April 1, 1984.
Indira Gandhi
67 years old
Third Prime Minister of India. Her harsh response to extremism by Sikh separatists led to her being shot over 30 times at point-blank range by two of her bodyguards who were Sikhs, October 31, 1984.
Olof Palme
59 years old
Swedish Social Democratic Prime Minister, critic of US and Soviet foreign policies, and opponent of South African apartheid. Walking home from a cinema with his wife, on February 28, 1986, Palme was fatally shot in the back at close range, and died on shortly after midnight, on February 29. His murder remains unsolved.
Judith Barsi
10 years old
Child actor (Punky Brewster, Growing Pains, Fatal Vision) — after years of abuse and death threats, her father shot and killed Judith and her mother, then killed himself, on July 25, 1988.
Kurt Cobain
27 years old
Singer, founder of the grunge band Nirvana. After failing to commit suicide by drug overdose, Cobain later put a shotgun in his mouth and killed himself on April 5, 1994.
Selena
23 years old
Mexican-American singer/songwriter, “Queen of Tejano Music” (Grammy winner for her album Como La Flor.) Shot by former president of her fan club, hired to manage Selena’s boutiques. When confronted by Selena with evidence of missing funds, she pulled a gun, then shot the fleeing Selena in the back, severing an artery, on March 31, 1995.
Yitzhak Rabin
73 years old
Fifth Prime Minister of Israel. November 4, 1995, Rabin attended a mass rally at Kings of Israel Square (now Rabin Square) in Tel Aviv, for the Oslo Accords. Rabin walked down city hall steps to his car and an Orthodox Jew opposed to signing of the accords fired three shots with a semi-automatic pistol, hitting Rabin twice and killing him. The third shot wounded one of Rabin’s bodyguards.
Gianni Versace
50 years old
Famous Italian fashion designer built a fashion empire worth over 800 million dollars, before he was shot to death outside his South Beach home in Miami by a spree killer on July 15, 1997.
Phil Hartman
49 years old
Canadian-American comedian (Saturday Night Live, News Radio). Arguing with his wife, Hartman threatened to leave her if she started using drugs again, then went to bed. Drunk and high on cocaine, she shot him twice with a .38 caliber handgun in the head while he slept, on May 28, 1998.
Benazir Bhutto
54 years old
Former Prime Minister of Pakistan, shot to death while attending a Pakistan Peoples Party rally on December 27, 2007.
George Tiller
67 years old
Medical Director of Women’s Health Care Services in Wichita, KS., firebombed in 1986. Tiller was shot in both arms by an anti-abortion extremist in 1993. On May 31, 2009, Tiller was fatally shot through the eye by another anti-abortion extremist while ushering at Sunday morning services at his church.
Thursday, February 25, 2016 —
Mass Shooting In Hesston, Kansas Leaves 4 Dead, 14 Wounded
Someone picks up a gun…
Sources:
- Gunfire, December, 2015
- Charles Sorley poem — http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/176865
- John Lennon song — http://oldies.about.com/od/oldieshistory/f/lastlennonsong.htm
- List of the dead — www.ranker.com/...? page=6
- Yesterday’s Headlines
(Shorter version of this blog originally posted at Flowers for Socrates)
