Crying to punk

This morning while I was taking my dog to the groomers, the song Violence by Rise Against came on my playlist. And I started crying. Are we not good enough? Are we not brave enough? Is the violence in our nature just the image of our maker? Are we not good enough? Are we not brave enough? To become something greater than the violence in our nature? Are we not good, good enough? Or is it all a dream? The violence I’ve been listening to punk music for 30 fucking years. I grew up during a time when holes in the ozone were a real, existential threat to humanity. And we came together and fixed that shit. Matthew Shepard was murdered when I was a teen. Being gay or trans was a punchline in shows and movies. Now gay marriage is legal. We were taught about Emmett Till as if it was ancient history when I was a kid. But if he wasn’t murdered because some shitty white woman lied would be 85 years old right now. He was younger than my grandpa! My parents lived through segregated schools and…