March 11th, 2009

It’s hard not be effected by what’s going on in the world right now. It’s a violent world we live in. Now people are walking into churches and shooting up the place. It seems like those violent acts lift shooters out of the anonymous muck into the national klieg light faster than a spot on Dancing With the Stars. And speaking about heaving things into the national klieg light, it’s hard not to notice that I’m spending my day writing about some of the west’s most notorious shots while a newscaster is reporting on some of the west’s most notorious shots. It’s a madhouse. I feel like Chuck Heston waking up in the field and seeing the chimp on top of the pony. What can be done with so many unhappy people in the world? All of us feel anonymous, powerless, and insignificant at times, but for many there seems to be no way out except to shoot it out. Maybe that’s because truly selfless acts don’t get near the publicity. “Hey, forget the guy who saved the kid in the fire, when’s Brittany Spears gonna reveal her new look?” “Will the doctor with the cure for cancer please sit down, here comes Usher!” Enough of that. I’ve got to get back to work writing about how two men unloaded their six-shooters into a wagon train of passengers. I guess it’s a good thing we didn’t have network television in the Old West. The public would be more familiar with a psychopath like Jesse James than a true hero like Bill Tilghman. Wait a minute?