Skip to main content

Do Something

 The President has become a pleading father figure.  Some of his offspring detest him, while others cow down as with all fathers.  His complaints are predictable.  Why can't you just behave?  But he is not talking about appropriate peer group behavior.  He speaks of carnage and compassion fatigue.  He is the leader of the nation that cannot seem to ban assault rifles.  So, we set records.  

We go from one mass shooting to another.  3 this week alone.  

I've yet to see how anyone needs an assault rifle for anything, in any circumstances.  The public school is being sacrificed on the alter of the 2nd amendment.  As one politico recently labeled #2, the greatest hoax in American political history.  Some of us see a marked difference between a well-regulated militia and an 18-year-old misfit with an AR-15.  

The President tells his story.  How the people appear before him with one request.  "Do something" they urge.  He is paralyzed by a Congress enmeshed in gridlock.  He speaks only of compromise.  

Is changing the age of AR-15 possession from 18 to 21 enough?  Is it anything at all?  

The Republicans can't see what is before their eyes.  Getting re-elected is the only priority they have.  That means not rocking the boat.  The boat is full of cash for their next campaign.  



They pivot.  It's about mental illness.  That's the culprit.  No matter the red flag provisions might help, no matter that not one reason has been provided to explain why anyone needs an automatic assault rifle.  How do we make those who obfuscate see the illogic of their thinking?  Some suggest the Emmit Till effect.  

When the 15-year-old Till was brutally beaten and then drowned by a racist mob, his mother decided to let people see his wounds in an open casket.  The media responded and people were shocked into reality.  It might give those who aren't quite there yet something to think about if they saw the damage that an AR-15 does to a 10-year-old in an elementary school.  It's brutal, but it seems to be necessary.  After all, we live in an image-oriented culture, where appearance is everything.  

So we wait.  We wait for something.  


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Writing on the Wall

       The first time I saw graffiti that was memorable was in a middle school bathroom.  As 6th graders I often walked home with friends by the middle school we'd soon be attending.  A stop by the boys bathroom near the boys gym placed me face to face with a piece of graffiti that immediately madame and my friends laugh uncontrollably.  On the wall above the urinals, was penned a short poem that read"                     This is a Teepee to take a pee pee,                         Not a wigwam to beat your tom tom      14 year-old humor at it's best.  The laughter my friends and I experienced was cathartic.  Being bottom of the barrel Freshmen could have dire consequences in the boys bathroom.  Those unpleasantries would come later, but for the moment, we were ecstatic and proceeded to read all the g...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Quality of Optimism

 I've returned to The Book of Qualities, by J Ruth Gentler once again to meet the needs of one of the senior students in my little Writing From Memory class I'm currently teaching in my local community center.  This little volume personifies various concepts and personality traits.  The particular student "in need" seems to be fixated on writing about her past relationships.  Apparently, there were many.   I'm OK with that.  I only hope that she picks a few qualities that are as revealing about herself as those that might describe her Ex's.  There is much to be learned by writing about a quality.  The aforementioned book seems to have survived well over the years.  I first encountered it and its author way back in the late 1970s.  I took a journal writing workshop from her.  Then, a few years later, her book came out and I introduced these writing exercises to my students.  11th grade Juniors seemed to do the best with it. ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Mr. Greene v. Mr. Brown

I want to tell you about something. Something I've carried inside myself for a number of years now. Perhaps if I were a different kind of person I wouldn't need to talk about it. I'm not. My need to tell it is stronger than your need to hear it. Because, however, there are a number of teachers and former students of mine who may read these meanderings from time to time, I need to tell this story all the more. About 7 or 8 years ago I was asked if I would allow a university PhD. candidate to observe an English class. At first I decided against it because I was scheduled to have a student teacher placed with me the second half of the semester in question. After some urging, however, at the request of a respected colleague, I agreed. Soon I was committing to extra meetings, signing documents and explaining to the class in question who the young woman who thoughtfully pounded away on a laptop in the rear of the classroom three times a week was. I knew that the topic of ...
3 comments
Read more