Just this morning another mass shooting happened, this time in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA in a Catholic church filled with school children celebrating mass before starting their school day in their church affiliated school. The US president and Homeland Security Secretary have sent thoughts and prayers and are monitoring the situation. Flags will be flown at half-mast.
And where are the National Guard and Homeland Security?
National Guard with troops from several states is now performing a photo op in Washington, DC at the president’s insistence that there is an emergency situation with crime there. According to reports, the Guard is NOT patrolling the high crime areas … just the highest visibility areas like monuments and tourist attractions.
Homeland Security is making big plans to paint trump’s border wall black because black paint absorbs more heat and the high black wall temperature will make it too hot for illegal immigrants to climb. HS is also busy arresting American citizens that LOOK foreign, are foreign exchange students, professors, physicians and moms and dads from their schools, homes, and workplaces and tossing them into American concentration camps.
No doubt Ms. Noem … who is living rent free in a government owned residence because she got phone death threats and didn’t feel safe in her townhouse, is also planning her costumes for her next photo ops. (I wonder if, following her own death threats, she can imagine, then, the fear of those threatened children this morning as they hid underneath church pews as bullets peppered them and they watched in horror as their friends were gunned down?)
Meanwhile, 14 children and teachers are hospitalized, some in critical condition, and a 10-year-old and an 8-year-old are dead from the school shooting this morning.
There will be no gun reform, no changes in the president’s agenda … just thoughts, prayers and flags waving in the breeze half way up flagpoles. If Sandy Hook, Marjory Stoneman Douglas, Uvalde & the countless others didn’t result in change, this one won’t either. All of this is complicated by the fact that individuals can now whip out a fully functioning gun in the privacy of their homes for a few bucks on their 3-D printer, no serial number required.
Lack of common-sense gun reform cannot be laid entirely at the feet of trump. He has been, although complicit, one of many primarily because of a congress that continues to vote AGAINST common sense in favor of receiving substantial donations. Dead children are, apparently, acceptable as collateral damage.
Walmart, grocery stores, churches, nail salons, theaters, nightclubs, concerts, parades and especially schools are no longer our “Happy and Safe Places.” They are potential slaughter houses for anyone with a gun who has a grievance against anyone or anything, plus the angry, the down trodden and the mentally ill. Their prey is the innocent unsuspecting that are guilty of nothing more than needing a loaf of bread, a pleasant night out or an education.
Our 4-year-old grandson is about to start pre-school. We should be thrilled at this next experience he is about to undertake as he grows into what we pray is a productive human being. He will be starting his adventure in a church-affiliated pre-school on the same campus as the church in a quiet, low-crime city, which should be the safest place on the planet. But this morning’s tragic news from Minneapolis assures us it is NOT. Not only are we worried about him beyond description, we are scared beyond belief for him…
… and for us and for this country, because it tragically happened again this morning.
America is a Gun
By Brian Biltson
England is a cup of tea.
France, a wheel of ripened brie.
Greece, a short, squat olive tree.
America is a gun.
Brazil is a football on the sand.
Argentina, Maradona’s hand.
Germany, an oompah band.
America is a gun.
Holland is a wooden shoe.
Hungary, a goulash stew.
Australia, a kangaroo.
America is a gun.
Japan is a thermal spring.
Scotland is a highland fling.
Oh, better to be anything
than America as a gun.
(Note: This poem was shared with me by Jane Fritz. Thank you, Jane.)
heimdalco 