I'll be honest: I didn't post yesterday because I didn't know where to even begin. I am still processing all of the information from this week. I have no fucking clue what to do with it all, but I know that being witness to an owl this week would not break me out of this stupor.
Nice try, Goats. Not even your adorable selves can break this one.
Frankly, I'm pissed. I am pissed that this keeps happening and we just wait for it to blow over until next time. One of my friends said that she doesn't think we're complacent. Bullshit. Yes we are. Not just us, but those bought-and-paid-for politicians in Washington who feel more of an obligation to their NRA buddies than to the youth and people of the country. I am pissed at anyone who feels that we can't or shouldn't do anything because it won't do any good anyway. Fuck. You. If we couldn't do anything, it's not because the changes wouldn't work. See Switzerland. Shifting the conversation to mental health doesn't work. Changing the conversation to more guns = more safety doesn't work. Check out the Scientific American article "More Guns Do Not Stop More Crimes, Evidence Shows". Fuck you if you think more guns does.
That's right, Dexter. If not this day, then when?
I'm pissed at anyone who tells me as a teacher it is my obligation to be armed and to attack any armed intruder. Do they teach armed intruder training in undergrad programs now? They teach continuing ed courses for teachers that encourage assigning jobs to students to barricade and be ready to attack any intruder into the classroom. Seriously? Not only are the children and educational professionals now to be accustomed to lockdown protocols, but we also have to be trained in police procedures? We also have to have more guns in school in order to feel safe and to fight back apparently. Tell that to the small town about 2 hours away that had a school shooting when I was in 6th grade. Tell that to the school where I taught for 11 years that had a credible shooter threat 3 years ago. Tell that to the people at the school where I currently teach where a student committed suicide in the bathroom when I had been teaching for 5 years. Tell that to every school that has had to find a way to keep going after tragedy. Fuck you. Until you've had to look at a classroom of scared teenagers when an unannounced drill is called, shut the fuck up. Until you have to sit on the floor and look at your class and wonder who you can save if anyone, fuck off. Until you have to sit there and wonder what if you couldn't save them all, fucking sit down. Until you have to question whether or not you would fight or flight in the face of an armed intruder intent on killing all the people you are supposed to care for between the hours of 8am and 315pm, fucking close your pie hole. You don't get to speak here. You need to fucking listen to the people on this front line. It ain't you, so fucking get off your soap box and open those NRA stuffed ears.
Show 'em how it's done, Basset!
Furthermore, I am pissed at the people who are telling the Florida teens who are planning a protest march and who are organizing to be the change they want to see in the world that their efforts won't do any good. How dare you undermine their actions to suit your fucking gun-loving position or your defeated, helpless attitude. Just because you've given up hope in this fight doesn't mean you get to take away their fight. They have skin in this game and they deserve to have it out in the public arena. So sit down; get out of their way; fucking watch and learn.
Hmmm. An elephant sitting down. How quaint.
Additionally, I am pissed at all the rhetoric on both sides. Automatic weapons ban is not the same as semiautomatic bans. Guess what? Semi-auto means many people dead even without modification. Modifications guarantee just as many dead. Guns in the hands of law-abiding citizens isn't the issue: Fuck off! As one blogger I read today said, every citizen with a lawfully obtained gun is a lawful citizen, until they aren't. Stop equating guns to cars. One is meant for death and one is meant for transport. Fuck you if you can't tell the difference in this false equivalence argument. Stop listening to the wrong sources of information. If it's connected to the NRA in any way, it is biased. If you can't identify the author, the credibility of the site, the footnotes, or the citations, disregard it and look somewhere else. Fucks to the Russian bots that were mobilized in the wake of this tragedy. You are making it harder to have this conversation. Readers in America, think critically and fucking sort it! Don't draw comparisons between the US and Australia. That argument isn't working; try something else.
And hopefully you won't die first, Kenny.
I am pissed at the people who think this can all be handled just by being compassionate and teaching our young people to be more inclusive. While I think this a great individual practice and what I follow at school, it's not going to solve the problem any more than the tiresome anthem of thoughts and prayers. I read a piece that sociologically speaking, there is now an environment of school shooters who identify with each other; they've found where they belong. They feel a connection in their worship of past shooters. They see a way to find their identity by being the best school shooter. They belong in the group because the past members set an example to emulate. Read The New Yorker article "Thresholds of Violence".
Oh, I have an idea Benedoop Cumbersnoot.
I am pissed at the people who think they can't do anything. Fucking keep trying. You owe it to the young people who survive. You owe it to the young people currently going to school every day wondering if today's the day they have to face the guns. You owe it to the memories of those who've died. You owe it to the families who grieve. You owe it to the educators who get maligned every day. You owe it to yourselves since schools aren't the only places where shootings happen. Fuck off if you are going to give into your despondency rather than standing up and shouting so loudly that people can't help but listen.
Pikachu, I choose you.
Last week, one of my students sighed heavily at the end of class. She was reading an article about Florida. She said she had watched a video of the bloodbath where people were on the floor in pools of red. My student looked at me without words and a longing to make sense of the situation; I couldn't soothe her worry or offer her solace and a way to understand. Another student woke her mom up the next day and asked what mom's views on guns were. A friend's daughter gets so much anxiety over lockdown drills, that she has to be moved to a safe room until the drill passes. But this kind of trauma is ok. Anyone who has learned about trauma's effect on the brain knows better.
The gun cult has sentenced the young people.
Their brains are now damaged, assholes. They now have even greater risk of chronic illness in addition to social-emotional disorders. You happy?
Listen to the voices of the young people. Look into the faces of the young people.
If you can do those things and still wrap yourself in the iron clad second amendment right, then fuck you.
Fuck. You.
Stand up, Moose! Don't let the bastards grind you down.
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