Uvalde
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These types of screeds are as pointless as tweeted thoughts and prayers. But today I do this for myself. You can read it if you want, but I just wanted to document what this incident did to me and my head.
I can't speak for what it did to yours.
As I wake up this morning the tally has increased to 19 4th grade children, along with 2 adult teachers who died like veteran soldiers, trying to protect their students. You know, the same teachers you relentlessly ignorant chuds shit on when they strike for pay or benefits or conditions….because they “get summers OFF BRO…grrrrrr”
I could go off on this tangent very easily. But I won’t. Rage is more insightful when it’s focused.
All of this in one classroom, which the shooter entered only AFTER he engaged law enforcement outside the school, managing to shoot and nearly kill two “good guys with a gun”….assisted by his BODY ARMOR, which he somehow purchased without raising any mental health red flags.
Deep into the night the parents of the dead children were lined up to give DNA samples, because their tiny sons and daughters were so mangled by gunfire that this was the only way to positively identify who belonged to whom. No law enforcement person who had to enter that classroom will ever be right again. The killer used an AR-15, which my gun-tooting friends are always quick to point out is not an assault rifle, as if this is some sort of panacea.
These school shootings break on our phones like sudden fog. Initial reports said 2 dead. I got on Google and there was a local ABC affiliate reporting 14 dead in a headline. But when I clicked on the actual link, the story also said 2 dead. Initially I assumed it was just some ghastly copy editor error. And I actually exhaled....programmed to "accept" the 2 but not accept the 14? Is there a magic number that kickstarts the "thoughts and prayers" crowd? Is it double digits? Does the age of the children matter? We're more accustomed to these things happening in high schools. This was an elementary school. Are there different sets of thoughts and prayers once a kid hits puberty? Maybe less Hail Mary's and more Our Father's?
I jerked backwards to Sandy Hook, when 20 children between the ages of 6 and 7 were slaughtered like feral hogs. President Obama stood at the podium and cried. Surely this was the moment that was gonna change everything. Surely nobody in DC was evil enough to walk over the bodies of dead children to continue their slow dance with the gun lobby. Right?
There's a certain level of narcissistic depravity out there that we always manage to underestimate. Many of our elected officials are almost cartoonishly evil. It seems a massive put-on for the cameras, and it might be. You half expect them to twirl their moustache as they tie any sort of gun control legislation to the railroad tracks. I don't need to name names. Their legislative cruelty is like patchouli oil. It arrives in a room well before they do. And lingers long after they’re gone.
But they are cheered on, and constantly re-elected, by....well.....us.
It's not all their fault that nothing changes. They are simply doing whatever it is they have to do to remain in power. Which is…either what we want….or just as importantly, what we won’t hold them accountable for. Like a dog in front of food bowl, a politician is hard-wired to line his or her pockets until the money is gone. You either believe this, or come up with the new math that explains how somebody making $174,000 a year always seems to leave office a multi-millionaire.
So they've crunched the numbers and determined that siding with dead children is gonna cost them at the ballot box and in the pocket. Other than as campaign props, a guy like Ted Cruz (ok, I'll name names) doesn't give a fiddler’s fart about guns. He doesn't stand around jerking off to the 2nd amendment. He loves his kids. Takes them (or rather sends them on) on nice vacations for sure. But Cruz represents people who do give a lot of fiddler’s farts about guns....and do perform circle-jerks around the 2nd amendment.....thus forcing him to act accordingly or be unemployed. If he thought he could get more votes wearing a fucking dress, he'd raid his wife's closet. This is not all on Ted Cruz. This is also on the people who continue to VOTE for craven assholes like Ted Cruz. Insert dozens of other names here.
There's something lacking in these people. Some wires got crossed somewhere, and they're missing a certain element of humanity that most of us take for granted. Hours ago Republican Arizona Congressman Paul Gosar baselessly tweeted that the shooter was a "transsexual leftist illegal alien...your kind of trash". He later deleted the tweet. This man was re-elected with 70% of the vote. Who do you blame for Paul Gosar? He's unapologetically, sociopathically awful all the time. Seven out of ten of you in Arizona are apparently missing the same fucking gene.
Keep in mind the bodies from Buffalo haven't been buried yet.
Keep in mind that in our country, in the year 2022 so far, it's more dangerous being a child in school than it is being a police officer. That's not hyperbole. It's math. I've crunched the numbers.
Keep in mind that it's much easier to get a gun in the US than it is to get baby formula.
Keep in mind that the "from my cold dead hands" crowd are the "pro-life" crew.
Today, Ukraine President Zelensky took a break from his war to send condolences to us….”(we) share the pain of the relatives and friends of the victims and all Americans…”
THE MAN IS IN THE MIDST OF A WAR.
There is nothing about this that is normal.
Nothing.
And this does not happen anywhere else.
There's an NRA convention in Houston in 2 days. Donald Trump is scheduled to speak. So is Ted Cruz and Texas Governor Greg Abbott. As a candidate for Governor, Abbott once tweeted that he was "embarrassed" that his state was only 2nd in the nation in new gun purchases and urged his people to "pick up the pace". Stuff like this is what gets you invited to speak at NRA conventions. Pity about the timing and location this year though, eh Gov? But a perfect opportunity for one of those Columbine-esque Charlton Heston postcard moments to own the libs. Recall the convention that year was in Colorado.
So, some synchronicity. American style.
So yea, they'll be addressing the NRA before these children are lowered into the ground. But by then maybe the Buffalo victims will be buried at least.
In a bit...
--tf