It took a long time for Alex Jones to face a jury regarding his conspiracy theory about the mass murders at Sandy Hook but this year a court ordered him to liquidate his personal assets and to pay a 1.5 billion dollar settlement to the families of those children who were killed. They may not ever see any of that money because Alex off-shored a lot of his assets but at least there were consequences for what he put those parents through with his lies. And his Infowars Channel was shut down due to him filing for bankruptcy. That's a giant win for America in itself.
So here we are fourteen years after Sandy Hook and the NRA still has the Republican party by the balls, still controlling people like JD Vance who at a rally this week urged everyone to pray for the families at Winder, Georgia, where a fourteen year old killed four and sent nine to the hospital using an AK-47 assault weapon. Vance also said, “I don’t like to admit this. I don’t like that this is a fact of life. But if you’re, if you are a psycho and you want to make headlines, you realize that our schools are soft targets, and we have got to bolster security at our schools.” He went on to say, "Stricter gun laws are not the determining factor in preventing school shootings. The Kamala Harris answer to this is to take law-abiding American citizens’ guns away from them. " How can he or anyone say that with a straight face?
The exact words from Democratic Party Platform reads: "Democrats believe that we can reduce gun violence while respecting the rights of responsible gun owners. We believe we should expand and strengthen background checks for those who want to purchase a firearm – because it shouldn’t be easier to get a gun than a driver’s license. We believe we should ensure that guns don’t fall into the hands of terrorists (whether they be domestic or foreign), domestic abusers, other violent criminals, or those who have shown signs of danger toward themselves or others. And we believe we should treat gun violence as the deadly public health crisis it is."
Joe Biden has long been calling for a ban on assault-style rifles---the guns of choice for so many mass murders---but it's not the official goal of the party. And even if it was, guns designed for warfare do not belong on our streets and they are useless for hunting. We don't allow private citizens to own tanks or fighter jets so how are guns designed strictly for killing people any different? There already is a constitutional line that allows us to separates weapons of war from weapons used for recreation and protection.
One day after the January 2024 shooting Trump said at a rally, “I want to send our support and our deepest sympathies to the victims and families touched by the terrible school shooting yesterday in Perry, Iowa, It’s just horrible, so surprising to see it here. But [we] have to get over it, we have to move forward.” I'm sure that was very comforting to the families who lost a loved one less that 24 hours earlier and that was sarcasm in case you can't hear how hard I'm pounding on my keyboard as I type this paragraph.
A couple of weeks ago when I was binging on buying political pinbacks I bought one that reads, "Thoughts & prayers, Policy & Change," and I've been wearing the last few days almost hoping one of the MAGA Republican would try to defend the mindset that thoughts and prayers are all we can do, that protecting guns is more important than protecting children. But so far, none of them have.
Look, I know sensible gun control laws isn't the total answer to stopping the heartbreaking and escalating trend we are on but it's a good start. If I was King I'd also put a Mr. Rogers-like figure back on the air and play segments of the show in all the elementary schools to help kids learn how manage their "mad feelings" and other valuable lessons he taught about getting along with others, bullies and a wide array of topics many kids aren't learning at home. But even that would be controversial in today's MAGA world. When Tom Hawks played Mr. Rogers in the 2019 movie, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood the internet warriors in the MAGA world claimed Mr. Rogers was responsible for creating a whole generation of "soft pussies who don't know how to be real men." What they really meant is that women have forgotten our places and too many men have accepted their changing, more hands-on role in parenting, cooking, cleaning and being an equal partner in a marriage. I was totally shocked by the venom voiced against Mr. Rogers. None of which has little to do with my original topic of mass shootings but this is where my mind wandered today and I'm not editing it out. ©
Until next Wednesday.
What Do You Do? Written by Fred Rogers
What do you do with the mad that you feel
When you feel so mad you could bite?
When the whole wide world seems oh, so wrong...
And nothing you do seems very right?
What do you do? Do you punch a bag?
Do you pound some clay or some dough?
Do you round up friends for a game of tag?
Or see how fast you go?
It's great to be able to stop
When you've planned a thing that's wrong,
And be able to do something else instead
And think this song:
I can stop when I want to
Can stop when I wish
I can stop, stop, stop any time.
And what a good feeling to feel like this
And know that the feeling is really mine.
Know that there's something deep inside
That helps us become what we can.
For a girl can be someday a woman
And a boy can be someday a man.
I fear that school shootings, as well as shootings that take place in all public venues, are becoming so commonplace that most of us are no longer shocked when we hear about them in the news. What a tragedy! As a former teacher, it breaks my heart to hear of schools training the students for potential attacks, but it is understandable. Many of us grew up taking cover under our desks, back when we feared Russian attacks, and I believe those moments of fear write a strong message on the heart and mind of young people. What's even more sobering is to think that our greatest foe might not be a foreign country or terrorist groups, but the kid next door. Lord, we need a huge dose of Mr. Rogers...those were the good old days.
ReplyDeleteI feel so badly that we have a whole generation of kids who never knew anything different. I was a statement yesterday that the Sandy Hook kids would have been starting college this year. David Hogg, from the Parkland massacre where 17 were killed has become quite the polished political advocate for changing gun safety laws is one of the few whose found a way to deal with the horror of it without turning it inward like so many of those kids end up doing.
DeleteI remember crawling under our desks during WWII even though it was only a year or two in our your lives. I can't imagine what kids today go through mentally with all this. Do they know half the adults in this country care about guns more than them?
I was teaching in the aftermath of Columbine. It was frightening. Our school enacted a raft of security measures, including locking all doors during the school day, requiring visitors to sign in at the office, and instituting photo ID's for each student, worn around their necks on lanyards. My students scoffed at this last measure during a class bitch session, insisting It Didn't Do Anything To Stop A Gunman.
ReplyDelete"No," a kid piped up during the ranting, "but it will help them identify our bodies."
You can only imagine the chilling silence that comment evoked.
With the shooting in Texas where the police waited in the hallway for over an hour, so many of those little kids couldn't be identified without DNC tests. One little girls was wearing yellow shoes and that's the only clue they had as to who she was. How does a parent live with that? How to the survivors who saw it happen live with that?
DeleteOh, if Mr. Rogers were only still here. Although I feel he would be so sad, it might break even him.
ReplyDeleteIf a parent or babysitter is going to let a TV babysit children, and I understand why they do on occasion have to do that, they need quality shows that teach values to children. Mr. Rogers did so many good things like be the first to have a wheelchair bound boy on his show and a black guy sitting side by side with their feet in a kiddy pool. He talked about billies and inclusion and the sadness of losing a grandparent and having a sick parent. The fourteen year old in this last shooting had never lived a peaceful, loving family life. A Mr. Rogers type figure in his life could have made a difference to help give his words for the emotions he obviously couldn't deal with and that could have gotten him some mental health resources.
DeleteIt has been a couple of years, but I am still not over the fact that the Tree of Life Synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh was literally two or three blocks from the church where Fred Rogers sometimes preached, and he also lived nearby. I agree that we need to have a children's show like his for today's kids.
DeleteNina
I didn't know that he preached sometimes! I'll beet he was good at it. So sad. I don't know how witnesses and families of mass shooting victims ever recover. I don't know how people who stand with the NRA can look themselves in the mirror.
DeleteThere is no reason anyone should own an assault rifle. Policy + Change. Parents and neighbors should speak up when they have concerns ... mental health is so important to kids.
ReplyDeleteThanks for writing about this horrible depressing topic. Children who kill.
Apparently, the mother of the 14 year old called the school 20 minutes before her son killed his victims to warn them. She lived 200 miles away and started driving to get there as soon as she hung up. The father had custody.
DeleteMy heart breaks at the loss of innocence and the heartache and pain their loss causes. Why should our children and staff have to live in fear of is it going to happen here? Most schools don’t have the resources to have guards and metal detectors. I have 5 teachers in my family and I pray daily for them and all my grandchildren that they will return home safe. Come on America we can do better, we need to do better as these children are the future of our country.🙏
ReplyDeleteBoy, are you right!!! If you come back will you let me know your first name or initials? I'm guessing this is J.J.
DeleteMany American's don't want to give up their guns, I'm not asking them too but I do not understand why they need an assault weapon. There are guns and their are mass killing guns who needs a mass killing gun other then the country's defence force. What parent in their right mind thinks it's ok to give a child or teenager a mass killing weapon, I don't get it and hope I never do.
ReplyDeleteRational people to have a hard time understanding because it's not rational or smart to give a kids weapon of war. Maybe after this father goes to jail for the reason of his life other parents will finally get some common sense about giving their kids access to firearms. My state was the first to charge the parents of a mass shooter earlier this year.
DeleteI loved Mr. Rogers because he would look right at me from the TV set and say, "I like you just the way you are." There were some days that I really needed to hear that.
ReplyDeleteNobody needs an assault rifle. You are right about that.
He really knew how to talk to children, didn't he. I still can't believe anything would think he was bad for society!
DeleteIt's inconcievable to me that this is tolerated - and yet, here we are.
ReplyDeleteYes, assault rifles are crazy. 😟
ReplyDelete—-CM (Cheerful Monk)
ReplyDeleteI find myself wordless every time another school shooting happens. How can we as a country allow this to continue? My take is that if people don't see this as a problem, then no one has to find a solution. Thoughts and prayers sure aren't solving anything.
ReplyDeleteMy take on it is that we have to get rid of Citizen United which allows groups like the NRA to give masses of money to senators and representatives to make sure no bill that regulates guns gets passed. They are 100% responsible for there being zero compromise regarding sensible gun laws.
DeleteI remember in 6th grade having drills where we went out in the halls and hunkered down in a squat and put our hands behind our heads to protect our necks, in case of a nuclear attack. I wondered how that would help us escape the radiation, but that was never explained. It didn't make a lot of sense to me, but I was a kid, lots of things didn't make sense to me. My kids were in middle and elementary school in 1999, when Columbine happened, and while it was an awful tragedy, at the time it was just that, we didn't know it was the start of this horrible trend. Now we know, and we also know how absolutely spineless our legislators are about gun control (and virtually everything else), but so many of us feel we can't do anything about it, we feel powerless and a lot of people have simply given up. It's so sad, but all I personally can do is keep writing to my senators (Rick Scott and Marco Rubio), but I don't really think they're listening to me. So I just read and watch the butterflies in my yard and try to enjoy the time I have left on this beautiful planet, and make it better for the creatures who live in my yard and neighborhood, and hope for the best.
ReplyDeleteThank you for such a thoughtful comment, Denise. I have faith in the young generation that is just reaching voting age to take the steps needed to put an end to mass shootings. Students who've lived their entire lives with it hanging over their heads know how to use the internet to organize and research. I have faith in kids like David Hogg whose started a first-rate lobbying group to bring about meaningful changes. He's like Greta Thurberg only with a different cause. She's the young activist who got the entire world thinking about climate change in a very short length of time.
DeleteHow sad one must be to not see Mr. Rogers as a gentle soul. I loved this poem. Thx
ReplyDeleteMy kids watched Mister Rogers, and I don't think I appreciated how wonderful he was at the time -- just a kids' show that they liked with funny little puppets and songs and stories. But with all that is going on the world right now, and how damaging it must be to so many kids, he was a real treasure. I also LOVED the movie with Tom Hanks. I really, really hope we can get some progress on gun control at some point. There is just way too much crazy going on for all of us. And then you have the Orange Crazy Pants (with his newly colored hair -- what is THAT?) inciting more violence. He really needs to be gone.
ReplyDeleteIf you haven't read Miss Mary's latest blog post about the community D.T. is targeting with his hateful stories about eating pets, it's worth the read. - http://missmerry-s.blogspot.com/2024/09/july-temperatures-in-september.html If he can cause the kind of trouble he has (inviting the crazies in that area to call in bomb threats, etc.) all based on a rumor some nut in cyber space told him, totally ignoring the authorities in area who claim it isn't true what would he do if he has the nuclear codes and some world leader claims another world leader called him a pussy?
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