The Former Senator from Pennsylvania Speaks

In a better world, Rick Santorum would know firsthand the horror of being trapped in a mass shooting. He would hear the screams and the fatal gunfire. Feel the blind, frantic panic that accompanies the realization that your life could end at any moment.

You would know, Mr. Santorum, what it is to be the target of a psychopathic human being bent on killing. And assisted by the NRA, able to.

It is my hope that this would reduce the likelihood of you accusing the too-young-to-vote survivors of the Parkland, FL. school shooting of “looking to someone else to solve their problem”, and perhaps make you a little more reluctant to suggest that they instead learn how to perform CPR.

(But I'm not holding my breath.)

Forty-eight hours later, public opinion polls—I mean your conscience—have you telling anyone who will listen that you erred in letting such a callous opinion escape the recesses of your oral cavity.

So relieved are you by this truth-telling that afterwards you even found occasion to joke: “I think Sanjay Gupta's job here at CNN is probably safe as being the medical commentator on things.”

Ha. Ha. Ha.

While the gun crowd likes to claim it's the target of derision and disrespect from the gun control crowd even as NRA lead freak Wayne LaPierre rails at liberal “elites” for their supposed monopoly of victimhood, as evidenced by Mr. Santorum and others this is clearly not the case.

I can't get my brain around the fact that we are criticizing our kids for being upset by the carnage that is taking place within their schools. And then for acting on it. Even as we wag our fingers at them for playing violent computer games and dismiss them for being unduly absorbed by their iPhones. 

CPR classes excepted, what would you have them do, Mr. Santorum?

By now, it should be clear that with the gun crowd, nothing is off the table when it comes to defending our constitutional right to die suddenly and for no reason whatsoever at the end of a gun.

Defeating them is going to require sustained and passionate protest. Their guns are the lone source of their strength. Their guns are their esteem. Their guns are their lives.

You can imagine the sea change required to undo their clutching, white-knuckled angst. And then the evolved society that is the result of having done so. 

Punished for Participating?

Shame on you, Downer's Grove North. Feel free to wear a paper bag over your head, Downer's Grove South. Ditto the other high schools who acted to punish students for participating in a nationwide walk-out to protest our wanton gun violence.

As educational institutions, isn't it part of your job to introduce students to various aspects of adult life? To teach them and simultaneously encourage them so that they might be better-informed and consequently better-enabled to make good choices?

Then why are you punishing students for taking part in what is still more or less a participatory democracy? Isn't encouraging involvement in one's community a good thing?

Please tell me that entrusted with the gigantic responsibility of shaping young minds, you don't side with Florida Representative Elizabeth Porter, who sneered at and patronized these students for their involvement in those very same protests.

In her remarkable address to the Florida state legislature, she asked “Do we allow the children to tell us that we should pass a law that says no homework, or do you finish high school at the age of twelve because they want it so? No, the adults make the laws because we has (sic) the age, we has (sic) the wisdom and we have the experience.”

In a perfect world, that last sentence certainly holds true. But we all know the sad reality of adults and politics, don't we?

Given today's social climate, I am positive you have your hands full meeting the demands of a wide-ranging student body and the expectations of their parents. I should add that as educators, you have my unflagging respect and support.

The majority of the time, anyway.

But when your students see a gigantic, festering sore in our culture and call out the adults in charge for letting it happen (or even perpetuating it), why do you punish them? Yes, kids do crazy things—they're kids. (I don't get the appeal of Manga, either.) 

But when they get concerned and act on that concern, should we really be stifling them?

As parents, we like to play the I'm-only-angry-because-I-care card. We use it when we act in a way we're concerned our children might not understand.

I'm pretty sure these kids care, too. Let them.

Wow (Times Two)

Wow! High school students all over the nation are realizing that way too much of their so-called elected representation are whores more interested in amassing campaign financing than acting in the best interests of the electorate. 

These enlightened students are acting en masse to demand change that, well, shouldn't have to be demanded. This has the smell, the feel of the early days of the Vietnam war protests, with a bottom-up, groundswell dynamic influencing and galvanizing public opinion.

I am so freaking impressed by these students collectively raising their voice and shaming our so-called leadership into doing what should have been done such a very, very long time ago. God bless them and their hope and their optimism and their belief and above all, their don't-tell-me-it-can't-be-done-until-I've-already-done-it conviction.

To say it is heartening and refreshing is woefully inadequate.

I'll see you in the streets March 24—if not sooner.

Wow. Hearing conservative's response to a growing call for meaningful gun reform is certainly sobering. The collective and willful denial they display in the face of the overwhelming evidence to the contrary is jaw-dropping.

Funny how when Republicans are called upon to share their perspective on our gun problem, it invariably comes down to the fact that there aren't enough. We. Need. More. Guns.

Does 'stupid' have a more luminous definition?

Then there's the unnamed citizen who appeared on the NBC network news not so long ago, complaining that by demanding a ban on assault weapons, we are 'scapegoating' the AR-15.

Yeah. Imagine that, dude.

Just like we scapegoat drunk driving, terrorism, SIDS and opioids.

Go figure.

A famous comedian once said you can't fix stupid. Which is undeniably true.

At least its parents can be neutered.

So Awesome!

Even as we mourn—in public—the death of seventeen schoolchildren, in private we seemingly sign off on this as routinely as we check our social media accounts.

If you've ever voted Republican you've endorsed the maximum availability of guns to just about anyone who wants one. We're not supposed to consider the reason the weapon was purchased. That's not important. 

What is vital to the ongoing functionality of the United States is that it was (and is) available. Just imagine the shithole the United States would be if Nikolas Cruz hadn't been able to assemble an arsenal fit for an urban SWAT team. 

The hypocrisy is as staggering as it is appalling. And of course is taken to its logical extreme by lead ringmaster Donald Trump, who courted the NRA throughout his campaign. 

Shut the fuck up Donald. Shut the fuck up Republicans. Shut the fuck up NRA.

Don't ever say you're filled with remorse. Or consumed by regret.

This is what you believe in. This is what you stand for. This is what—above all else—you enable.

If we loved our kids (and each other) the way we like to say we do, the NRA would have ceased to exist a very long time ago.