A typical American weekend

Last weekend was a terrible weekend.

It was as American as baseball, hot dogs and apple pie.

Last Saturday started with a shooting at Brown University that left two people dead and 9 injured. In addition, the suspect was believed to have shot an MIT professor during the same time period. I believe a manhunt lasted several days before a suspect was identified and found dead in some storage facility in New Hampshire.

He was 48 years old and a Portuguese national. So, not a typical young male with mental health issues.

Motives remain unknown.

Then, I believe on Sunday, another mass shooting occurred in Bondi Beach, Australia, during a Jewish holiday festival: 15 dead and 40 hospitalized. Father-son duo was the perpetuator of this shooting. The father is dead; the son is held hospitalized.

Then Sunday night, I learned famed actor and filmmaker Rob Reiner and his wife was found stabbed to death. Later, the news reported that one of his sons were arrested.

Australians are looking to add further restrictions to guns, even though they have one of the most stringent gun control laws in the world.

In the US…crickets… No conversation there.

I remember seeing Rob Reiner in “All in the Family” but I did not know he was a prolific and very successful filmmaker. Apparently, he made “Misery”, “When Harry Met Sally”, “This is Spinal Tap”, “Princess Bride”, “Stand by Me”, “A Few Good Men”, “The American President”.

I had absolutely no idea about his accomplishments.

I also learned the limits of talking about someone’s death. Obviously, cheering and celebrating a murder a la Charlie Kirk is a no go. There were a few who did that and I believe that they were “cancelled” for being abhorrent.

But there are limits as to how to word one’s condolences and the type posted by the president was beyond some MAGA’s limits. MAGA regarded his comments as inappropriate.

While the president did NOT cheer or celebrate their death, he added references to Trump derangement syndrome and maybe how he was not talented (I don’t remember the exact wording, and I am trying to avoid looking for it).

So, when commenting on death or giving condolences, just leave out the snide remarks, the whining or the schadenfreude. Just keep it simple like “A very sad thing happened last night in Hollywood…Rob Reiner has passed away, together with his wife. May Rob and Michele rest in peace.”