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.
