No Country For Old Men

I wondered what Coleman McCarthy was up to in writing his shocking and drenched-in-blood "No Country For Old Men." I concluded he was depicting a possible future in which nihilism sweeps away all in its path. (I also highly recommend The Road, which won the Pullitzer Prize in 2006 and will be released this year as "a major motion picture.")

McCarthy, a Catholic (at least that's what I've read), may be an example of what Flannery O'Connor said (which I quoted Sunday): "My own feeling is that writers who see by the light of the Christian faith will have, in these times, the sharpest eyes for the grotesque, for the perverse, and for the unacceptable."

That future doesn't seem very far away, both literally and figuratively, judging from the newspaper account today of a brazen attack by narco gangs on the Governor of the state of Chihuahua. You can read about it here.

The article I saw in the Tribune this morning said:

"In 2008, more than 1,600 people died statewide in drug-related violence, the highest toll for the year among Mexico's states. This year, the number already exceeds 300. . . The country saw more than 6,000 slayings in 2008. The toll so far this year is above 800. . . .

"In Ciudad Juarez, the state's deadliest spot . . . the city's police chief, Roberto Orduna Cruz, quit Friday -- two days after signs threatened that a police officer would be killed every 48 hours if the chief stayed on the job. In the hours before he stepped down, a municipal officer and jail guard were fatally shot. Orduna said he wanted to prevent more attacks against the city's 1,600 officers."

I don't know how old Sheriff Cruz is, but any sheriff is an "old man" when he believes in "old values." We need to keep praying that this "shootout" between good and evil, between value and Nothing, will be won by the good guys!