Tag Archives: Shooting

Just Another Weekend

It was a beautiful Saturday night at Baltimore’s Inner Harbor, a favorite spot for tourists. Also now a murder scene, as two people were shot, one of them killed as the City is on track to set another new record for murder.

Down in Chattanooga, there were multiple shootings. Not much being reported out, just that there were “multiple victims” and that they were mostly young people. You know, just a bunch of kids out having fun on a Saturday night.

Away out west, The Los Angeles Times is reporting that a gun and loaded magazine were found in a second-grader’s desk in Sacramento. All things considered, that’s hardly worth mentioning, I suppose, as coast to coast millions continuing mourning the senseless shooting deaths of children and teachers in Uvalde, Texas

23 weeks into the year, and we have now suffered through 27 shootings in the nation’s classrooms according to CBS News.

For so many of us, numb to reality, it will be just another weekend despite our ongoing national crisis in a country awash with guns as children are systematically slaughtered.

Throw another hamburger on the grill, pass another beer. Up the street, the local fire company is raffling off a brand new AR-15 as part of their annual fund raiser. Just another weekend in America.

American Tragedy

God, I feel lousy. All those kids. A small town police department. Everything that could go wrong, went wrong. And now, all the finger-pointing and the angst – again and again since before Columbine. So tired of this sh__t.

Assault weapons do not belong in the hands of civilians. End of story. For the first time, I won’t be flying the flag on Memorial Day. Most Americans don’t know what it stands for. Used to be “In God We Trust.” Now, it’s the almighty dollar. The best Congress money can buy. Don’t doubt it for a minute.

Carnage: Our New Normal

CHILDREN SLAUGHTERED FROM SEA TO SHINING SEA WHILE REPUBLICANS CONTINUE BLOCKING GUN-SAFETY LEGISLATION. THIS CONTINUING CARNAGE IS ON THE REPUBLICAN PARTY AND A CULTURE THAT WORSHIPS VIOLENCE AND VICE.

This is our new normal. It has been more than two decades since Steve Allen wrote in his book, “Vulgarians At The Gate”-

“As recently as 1992 the American Psychological Association concluded that forty years of research on the link between TV and real life violence has been ignored, stating that the “scientific debate is over” and calling for federal policy to protect society. The American Academy of Pediatrics has said, in a January 5, 1999, formal report, “Children don’t naturally kill. It is a learned skill and they learn it most pervasively, from violence as entertainment in television, the movies, and interactive video-games.”

Who The Hell Are We, Anyway?

The shooting in Alexandria, Virginia, was sad.   So are extremists who will now use the tragedy for their own mealy, disgusting, political purposes. There’s some level headed thinking to be had as well.

A couple of recent tweets are on point.   One comes from Republican political commentator Ana Navarro, who tweeted, “Shooting of Cong. by left-wing extremist as condemnable as slaughtering of heroes in OR by right-wing extremist. American on American hate.”  

The other was tweeted out by University of Minnesota Professor of Law and former attorney for the Bush Administration,  Richard Painter, who wrote, “A left wing nut with a gun is as dangerous as a right wing nut with a gun. But mental health coverage is harder for him to get than a gun?”

Those tweets shouldn’t make anybody angry.  They should make us think.

One thought that keeps running through my mind is that when compromise is impossible conflict is inevitable.  It would appear that we need to try and understand why compromise has become a thing of the past.  Why legislators who used to put country first, now care only for stringent business and party-line interests as party leaders worry more about special interest groups than for the concerns of the majority?

Do you suppose that business and government interests being allowed to pump truckloads of cash into our political process might have something to do with it?

Beyond that, why, with the election of President Obama, did the Republican Party become “The Party of No?”  Could racism and greed be factors and can we possibly get past our current divisions without first understanding who we are?  Is there no middle ground between the “general welfare” mentioned in the preamble to our Constitution and free trade Neocon Capitalism which ignores the general welfare of the many while providing great wealth to the few?

Are we condemned forever to repeat these idiotic boom and bust economic cycles that tear us to pieces?   Is there no resolution?

Who the hell are we, and how did we get to a point that a man from Illinois felt he had no viable alternative except to grab an assault rifle, drive to Virginia and open fire?     Can we be honest enough with ourselves and with one another to get past this?