WILL THIS TIME BE DIFFERENT?    MARJORY STONEMAN DOUGLAS HIGH SCHOOL

I cried. I cursed.

No, not again!

Please, no more “our thoughts and prayers are with you” and “heartfelt condolences” and “trained grief counselors will be available for all those in need.”

Please, do not shift the focus away from gun control by ideas like, “let’s train everybody at the school in how to handle guns; let’s have nearby store personnel ready to stanch the flow of blood from wounded kids.”

Read the data, best brought together in the Max Fisher and Josh Keller article (New York Times),  “What explains U.S. Mass Shootings.” Spoiler alert: it is guns!

Below is what I wrote five years ago, after the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre.

“Inevitably, no matter how horrible an event, one hears the phrase, ‘a return to normalcy.’ It is meant to represent a positive lift to one’s spirits, not for those directly affected – because their lives will never be normal – but for all the others, whatever their degree of separation.

It is as if ‘a return to normalcy is a desirable goal for all concerned. IT IS NOT.”

It cannot be accepted as normal to have school killings as a consistent front page story and then move on. It cannot be normal to be “able to buy a gun with less difficulty than getting a driver’s license.”

It cannot be normal to think that the “NRA is the last word on interpretation of the Constitution, with its members historically having more energy than the rest of the political population and thus able to fight off changes which might have saved some innocent kids.

” It cannot be normal to “lead the world in gun ownership and the number of children killed by guns.”

“To be in favor of a return to normalcy is insane!”

Maybe this time will be different.

The walk-out planned for March 14, the activism of students (#NeverAgain, #Enough), the decision by a wealthy Republican funder to close his wallet unless there is meaningful gun control – provide hope. (I will ignore the fact that many states have ceased requiring a permit to carry a hand gun.)

There are numerous rules pertaining to guns (and to the way mental health information is handled) which can be changed without infringing on the Constitution and without hindering, e.g., the ability of hunters to pursue their sport. Americans will not suddenly become more vulnerable to terrorists (in truth, we should be more scared of ourselves!).

Maybe we cannot close the gap to our more civilized neighboring countries, but I cannot countenance the image of more kids going down in a hail of bullets.

This cannot be normal.

This time must be different!

 

 

ON BEING COUNTERFACTUAL OR COUNTERINTUITIVE OR COMPLETELY CONFUSED        

Let’s see if I can draw a logic path concerning several items of interest, while striving to ignore inside baseball machinations, memos of mixed interest, and incessant noise emanating from the Oval Office.  Careful, unemotional readers (all three of you) will observe that the listing of topics deliberately excludes character analyses of the Big Tweeter.

First, as a premise, approximately 99% of all presidential candidates make promises relating to jobs. At present, the economy is recording its eighth year of gains and unemployment is at a ten-year low.

Second, a majority of everybody likes the combination of a strong military (if no other reason than its impact on local employment) and no wars (understanding the definition of our involvement in the Middle East is beyond my comprehension). I guess one could quibble about related details, but it does seem that this duality is the current condition, irrespective of aggressive verbiage.

Third, sexual predators of all political persuasions are getting their comeuppance. The environment is good for such revelations and punishments. Women are being incrementally empowered.

Fourth, there is a plane full of NY Times board members and Harvard professors, complete with their families, en route to s…thole countries. They are taking advantage of a one-year all-expenses paid offer  from George Soros. Conveniently, they will be able to stay in the houses being left empty by residents of those countries who are fleeing to the United States.  (Trigger warning after the fact: I made this one up. The rest are like, you know, accurate.)

Fifth, the stock market moving to record highs (even with a slight blip recently) has enriched (on paper) not only the 1%, but the vast numbers who have stocks in their pension and other retirement plans.

Sixth, some kids are getting a good education, some are not. Hello, nothing new there.

Seventh, healthcare is, uh, a mess, both before and now. Perhaps Warren, Jeff, and Jamie will be able to fix it. A much higher probability is that Warren and I will have punched our timecards before there can be a definitive judgement on the success of their endeavor.

Eighth, thousands of words could be written about immigration reform (I have contributed more than a few in previous posts), but not here. In my little scorecard at the close, this area has to be considered a negative in looking at the impact of the current administration.

**

So there you have it, a totally incomplete list of contemporary political situations: four positives, two neutrals, one negative, and one irrelevant but hopefully humorous bit of insightful cynicism.

Do not leaders get credit or blame for all kinds of things which happen while they are in charge, even if nothing they did was the true proximate reason for either the positives or the negatives. Historically, that has been the case, but apparently to give any credit to the most disapproved head man this country has ever seen is something the bicoastal media/intellectual elites cannot tolerate.

(P.S. Note that this collective group is populated with some of the “best and brightest” whose advice was so disastrous in the recent presidential  campaign. In truth, the election was lost, not won, a key reason for much of the emotional thrashing — which knows no limits or end, falling short in its contribution to the pervasive angst only when compared with the erratic antics, factual looseness, and offensive verbiage of the nation’s top office-holder.)