Ah fair April! Poets slather you in verse while young love blooms about like an endless promise. Or something, something else. Yes, April has its magical side with the ultra-greens of new life budding and the mythical spring fever restraining energy of those too absorbed by its beauty to move.
But as every action must have a reaction, April too has its dark side. One can surely see April raising its grim head in the death-row-march of history.
Just in the last week or so: Fourteen dead in Binghamton. Three cops killed in Pittsburgh. A father in Washington murders his five children and then kills himself. And you’ve heard of suicide by cop whenever someone manufactures a police standoff so officers will shoot that person? Well, how about suicide by Air Force?
Canadian student pilot Adam Leon apparently stole a Cessna 172 in Ontario and ended up in a high-speed chase with F-16 fighters on his tail, terminating in Missouri. Police said the pilot wanted the military aircraft to blow him out of the sky.
We used to think so innocently about April showers bringing May flowers. But in years past, April has become more of a reign of blood and sorrow.
On April 16, 2007, Seung-Hui Cho killed 32 and wounded 25 at a rampage on the campus of Virginia Tech. Cho killed himself after the attack.
Then who could forget the date April 19? More than 80 people died in Elk, Texas, outside Waco, on April 19, 1993, after flames ripped through the Branch Davidian compound following a 51-day siege. Two years later, 168 are murdered when the Murrah Federal Building is blown up in Oklahoma City, for which murdering domestic terrorist nutcase Timothy McVeigh is executed.
On April 20, 1999, two students at Columbine High School in suburban Denver killed 13 students and teachers, and wounded 23, before killing themselves.
There are probably other April massacres that have slipped my mind not to mention individual murders of note such as that of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, who was assassinated on a motel balcony in Memphis on April 4, 1968.
One has to look over this list of mayhem and wonder: What the hell is it about April that makes it such a violent month? I am nobody when it comes to a substantial answer. I am sure some historians and pundits might see various links between the Branch Davidian episode and that of Oklahoma City and possibly even Columbine. But all the recent bloodletting leaves many shaking their heads.
The guy who shot all the cops in Pennsylvania allegedly worried President Obama was going to come get his guns. There also is a lot of buzz and concerns about Obama and his own safety what with all the nutjobs out there such as Republican Rep. Michelle Bachmann of Minnesota, who alluded to the need for armed revolution against the Obama government, although she has reportedly backtracked on some of her language.
Then there is talk show host Glenn Beck who is beside himself with fears FEMA is building concentration camps. Also, aging karate dude and TV actor Chuck Norris along with Michigan carpetbagger Ted Nugent now of the Waco area are making noise about how Texas should succeed from the union. The state does have some limited right to do so due to its former status as a republic. However, if one remembers, the state didn’t fare so well with the other states who left the U.S.A. during the early 1860s.
Maybe nothing has to do with nothing when it comes to April and its bloody background. I have always loved the Spring, my favorite season, and April has likewise been one of my favorite months. Now, I don’t know about how you feel but I am about ready for May to get the hell here.