Incivility runs through the history of this country, founded on stolen land, built with the labor of stolen lives. We are told to stay calm and vote as an outlet for our anger. And if we dare to protest, if we dare to express our rage, if we dare to say enough, we are lectured about the importance of civility. All we can do is hope these bullets don’t hit our children or us. Time and again we are told, both implicitly and explicitly, that all we can do is endure this constancy of violence. These staggering numbers will not change one single thing. At least 19 children and two teachers are dead. The scale of death in Uvalde, Texas, is unfathomable. Adults, schoolchildren, concertgoers, nightclub revelers, grocery shoppers, teachers. And there is nothing more uncivilized than the political establishment’s inurement to the constancy of mass shootings in the United States: 60 deaths in Las Vegas, 49 deaths in Orlando, 26 deaths at Sandy Hook, 13 deaths in Columbine, 10 deaths in Buffalo. There is a cultural obsession nowadays with civility, with the idea that if everyone is mannered enough, any impasse or difference of opinion can be bridged.
