And they're dancing in Washington.

            And they're singing digital hallelujahs.

            And they spill passion across the sidewalk like blood.

            When did we become this bloodthirsty and vengeful? When was it decided that justice could be delivered in a hail of gunfire? Part of me wants to believe the easy answer, that it's simply human nature. That violence is one of our primary tools, always has been, and its brutal effectiveness is a useful necessity. If we didn't return violence in kind, if we didn't punish those who had the hubris to try and punish us, we'd simply be promoting flowery ideology at the cost of our own security. If we don't fight back, it won't stop the other guy from beating us soundly about the head and neck. So, why not celebrate a solid victory, even though it involves the death of a fellow human being?

            What the fuck is wrong with us?

            No thought, no reason, no foresight, we may as well be chimps, screaming, raping, marking our boundaries with the stink of hot piss. The bad guy is dead, woop it up for a night, let out a cheer for man's inhumanity to man. Enjoy another illusory respite from problems here at home that could be quickly and efficiently dealt with if even a tiny fragment of our weapons budget was used towards that purpose, the purpose of a sustainable improved future. But no. My mistake. We still have a limitless past full of wrongs unpaid. Until we balance our fictional scales, until our blood debts are ALL settled, until we've convinced everyone of our status as an unassailable force, we'll have to stay firmly in the past.

            Fuck you Osama. And fuck you Obama, and Bush, and Washington, DC. Fuck you America, and all the countries that point to us and say, "What savages," while ignoring the Middle Easterners who slaughter people over the singed pages of a book, and fuck them too. Fuck those who celebrate when they should be looking at exactly what it cost in human life to finally get our bloody vengeance. And, just in case anyone gets the wrong idea, fuck me too, because evil only triumphs when good men do nothing.

            On days like today, the shame of what we are nearly obscures the hope. Just open your eyes. Look farther, and better, and know that murder will never justify murder, that violence is not a tool, but a cycle.

David Fisher is an artist living in Austin, Texas.