As I am continually reminded of that other Marjorie, the one from Georgia, let me in part attempt to redeem my first name (albeit with a slightly different spelling!) with the quote above, of Marjory Stonemason Douglas. Just over 5 years ago, her namesake school in Florida was the site of yet another school shooting. Last week, a school in Tennessee was the site of yet another one, and this week – two days ago – there was a mass shooting at a bank in Kentucky, a state – like Tennessee and Florida – that is very gun friendly, and that ranks 13th out of 50 states nationwide in deaths from gun violence per the CDC.
I am numb to it all, yet – still I rage against gun huggers and their enablers in various governmental bodies across this country. And, I will do a dance of joy if and when (knock wood) the NRA is forever bankrupt and destroyed. I also live in a rural part of New York State where I was roundly criticized for, while acting a county legislator, not voting to condemn the NY Safe Act, a law that was passed in the dark shadow of the Newtown Ct. murders of 26 children and adults, twenty of them first graders. First graders.
Thoughts and prayers aren’t working. Banning assault weapons, weapons of war, does. The U.K. suffered one – one – mass shooting in an elementary school in Dunblaine, Scotland, in 1996 and as a result changed their firearms laws. Since then – crickets. It makes me ashamed to be an American, watching legislators prioritize guns over the lives of children, of adults, of all of us. Where next? Grocery stores, movie theaters, synagogues, churches, schools, concerts, dance studios, yoga classes have all been visited with mass murder, rendering them at least in part unsafe ~ where will we be slaughtered next because the selfish, stupid armed minority have bullied the majority of us into a state of resignation?
Charlie Sykes is a conservative pro-lifer whose anti-fascist, anti-trump podcast, The Bulwark, I occasionally listen to because while a number of his positions make me wanna scream and beat him over the head with a styrofoam donkey, it’s important to me to break my bubble with the views of others (and, he’s left the GOP, good choice, Charlie!). Plus, I am a big fan of Tim MIller whose 2022 book was an excellent autopsy of the road to the transformation of the Grand Ol’ Party into the GQP/Trmp party. Plus, he’s funny. But, back to Sykes. He recently penned the following, which I share here because he is 100% correct; if these mass killings were carried out by ISIS, imagine how quickly we would act. Instead, our mind-numbing almost daily rate of domestic terror attacks barely make an impression. Shameful. ‘Murica! We can and must do better. If I were growing up now, and saw shooting after shooting after shooting as well as how intransigent legislators were regarding gun safety laws, I wold be terrified, confused, and enraged, certain that the people in charge – the supposed adults in the room – were saying, to me and my peers, you all don’t matter. Guns matter. Sorry, kids!
The quote from Sykes’ newsletter, and good food for thought:
Instead of talking about the routine slaughter of children and our fellow citizens in schools, banks, nightclubs, and grocery stores, imagine we were talking about terrorist attacks. Imagine that there had been 145 attacks from members of the Sinaloa Cartel, or that dozens of airplanes had been hijacked and hundreds of passengers killed. Would Rick Scott merely offer thoughts and prayers? Would Ted Cruz suggest that we need more locked doors? Armored backpacks? More armed guards? More bans on drag queen story hours?
We must vote these assholes TF out.