Grief and Outrage

No real blog tonight. I was going to write about the joy of old friends, but it seems somehow trivial in the face of the latest school shooting, one with a high number of victims. I grieve for those students in Florida, for the families who lost children, for the children left behind to live in fear that will haunt them forever. I grieve for my country, where one apparently-deranged person can wreak havoc and ruin so many lives.

I am outraged, but I’ve been outraged before. What good does it do me or the country? I am outraged at those legislators who have pocketed NRA money. I am, in a fit of anger, outraged at anybody who voted these fools into office, which pretty much means any Republican voter. How can they? I want to cry out to the heavens. (I have one dear, dear relative and several friends who voted Republican; some will talk to me about it, but others will not).

I think of my grandchildren. One in college, one in high school, three in middle school, and two in elementary school. They are all vulnerable, though the worst threat so far to the college girl was a man sighted on campus with a sword. Slightly archaic but give me swords over guns any time. But it’s a bit scary to think of them heading to school every day.

I am tired of “We need our guns for self-protection,” and “We have to be able to hunt.” I used to be sympathetic to those arguments, but no more. We need to get rid of guns in the hands of private citizens. Sure, criminals will still get them but in dramatically smaller numbers, and we stand a good chance of keeping them out of the hands of the mentally ill. Look at the buy-back program in Australia or the effective gun control that’s been working in England for years. No, it’s not an impossibility. Internationally, we hold a lot of honors—like the most mass shootings, the most gun deaths.

I know we cannot blame the Trump administration for these shootings, since they started years before. But this administration just did relax controls so that now it is easier for the mentally ill to obtain weapons. I do blame Trump and him alone for setting the mood in this country where it’s okay to be angry, belligerent, hateful and spiteful, and to act on your anger.

I’d been thinking about Trump today before the shooting, and it occurred to me there’s so much about him to dislike, so many changes he has wrought that destroy our democracy, our country, and our way of life. But, unfortunately, they are mostly things that cause us to wring our hands and gnash our teeth. But two things stand out to me as treason, before the Mueller report is even in (which I expect to confirm collusion and more):

Trump has refused to enact the sanctions imposed on Russia by Congress for meddling in our elections (which they are apparently poised to do again, without any concern from the White House), and he has exposed our country to security risks in the guise of highly placed staff who apparently cannot get security clearances. I know nothing of Rob Porter (except that I despise him), but Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law, has known, established ties to Russia and no security clearance. Does Donald Jr. have a clearance, he who said they get all their money from Russia these days? (45 should teach his sons to button their lips).

How long as a country do we allow a traitor to sit in the White House and undermine all that we hold dear? Please hurry, Mr. Mueller. And please, those of you who thought your vote didn’t matter, turn out in mass numbers this fall. My grandchildren are depending on you—and so are your children and grandchildren.

Oops, no blog, but I certainly did carry on.