GOP politicians are too cowardly to save the country from black shirt Trumpism. Why would anyone think they would stick their necks out just to keep a few schoolchildren from getting shot? Taxes must be cut and pregnancies must be forced. Dead schoolchildren is part of the cost of doing business.
It isn't as if gun owners don't have any rights, it's just that a great many of them have convinced themselves their rights trump everyone else's. Their precious gun rights come far ahead of the rights of the general public to expect a reasonable level of public safety. When Sandy Hook failed to move this country, I knew nothing was going to happen any time soon. It will take a generation of young people who grew up with active shooter drills because the people representing them in Congress were too spineless to take on the gun lobby, to change things.
I must have said it a dozen times or more: this is what happens when lawmakers elevate a THING above the people they are supposed to represent. Ultimately, though, that really isn't what's happening. It's more like the lawmakers have prioritized the money they get from the NRA over the wishes of their constituents. Either way you slice it, the kids get shot and the members of the state government refuse to do anything about it.
Perhaps the lesson of the Covenant school shooting will finally be to vote those representatives out. Nice dream. Be nicer if I actually believed it.
Leaders of the Leopards Eating Faces Party surprised when Leopards eat *their* faces, too.
"But, but, but but, but....", said one pearl-clutching society matron. "This isn't supposed to happen to, to...We Wealthy Whites! We bought those electeds fair and square, they're supposed to do what we tell them to do!", exclaimed a local business owner and church deacon whose children attend the school. Jesus could not be reached for comment.
"If we want people to change their minds on any issue, we can’t be angry if that change only occurs after it affects them personally."
As a counselor, I was in the business of helping people change. When they came into my office, they didn't want to change, they just wanted to feel better. I didn't get angry at them, but I did have to patiently and lovingly stay with them as they hurt worse and worse. The human brain is fairly good at finding truth, but it's excellent at finding comfort. Change, even for the better, is not comfortable. With very rare exception, people change only when the pain of staying the same hurts much worse than the pain of changing. Not just a little worse; it has to be a lot worse.
People don't change their retrogressive or bigoted views until they or one of their loved ones is seriously harmed or even killed because of those views. Even then, they will often make as minimal a change as they think they must in order to feel better. The brain's feel-better imperative remains in place.
Of course I can empathize with those parents who appealed to their elected lawmakers, but apparently their pain of staying the same is just beginning. They're going to have to change their politics and change their voting habits, or it will all stay at the same not-quite-painful-enough level.
Oh, but several prominent conservatives 𝘥𝘪𝘥 start calling for gun control after this shooting. I distinctly remember that perpetually-constipated asshole Tucker Carlson running segments in the aftermath calling for people to be banned from owning guns at all... 𝘪𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘴. Hundreds of shootings in a row, thousands of victims, nearly all perpetrated by cis/het conservative white men? How dare anyone even talk about gun control at a time like this! One shooting by someone who might be trans? All trans people are clearly dangerous, take their guns away!
Hypocrisy- it's the Republican way. If they didn't have double standards, they'd have no standards at all.
I'm going to be honest here because I think that's what's needed - less sugarcoating and more bald truth.
'“When is it going to be the right group of people that gets affected for someone to listen?” Ms. Joyce asked...' Allow me to clarify here, Ms. Joyce, 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒃𝒍𝒆𝒎. I say that because you've seen the issue here, and after encountering difficulties, you haven't done the one thing you can personally do to push meaningful change by your own admission: stop voting for these people. Blaming lawmakers for doing what you elected them to do is nonsensical, they're just following instructions at this point. Unless you want to make some ill-advised and unwise attempt to replicate the same violence on these lawmakers that occurred when your children were injured, they have no intention of ever listening to you on the subject.
Stop expecting someone else deal with the problem and start working on it yourself. The easiest start is to change your vote, then get better acquainted with unbiased material on the subject. Good luck.
The same Rethuglikkkan lawmakers who, you should pardon the expression, consistently shoot down sensible gun legislation, work in a building where firearms aren't allowed. They feel no threat. No sense of personal danger. What were to happen if someone were to be able to smuggle a weapon inside and gun down one or more of these ammosexuals? With their illusion of safety/immunity gone, would they finally act when it was THEIR lives that were on the line?
I feel for all children (minors and adults) who died because of their or other parents stupidity. For theses conservative christians, until you take your head of your ass you don't deserve compassion. It's what you did to other families.
I was glad to see the statement about the kind of politicians people are electing being a large part of the problem. If voters in the various states keep sending irresponsible, right-wing pols to state houses, nothing will ever change. And let's not forget how Scalia and the SC misinterpreted the 2nd amendment to give almost unlimited scope for gun owners. They ignored the historical context, enabling the crazies to say the Founders wanted us to own guns to protect ourselves from the govt. when in fact they wanted a "well-regulated militia." Not the camo-clad loonies we have today, but communities wanting to protect themselves if the Brits came back for seconds or Indians on the frontier attacked them. So now we have a right mess and no good way to get out of it.
"If we want people to change their minds on any issue, we can’t be angry if that change only occurs after it affects them personally."
Well, obviously, here's the problem. We know that hyper conservatives and hyper conservative Republicans don't seem to care about anything until the leopards have eaten their faces. Then they care about it. Unfortunately, they went to fellow hyper conservatives whose faces have not yet been eaten-- In short, to people who already couldn't possibly not care any less than they already don't.
I feel very sorry for the kids, of course. As an atheist, I think we have only one life to live and it is the greatest tragedy not to be able to live it. But I don't feel too much for the parents.
It is the opposite of what is on the lips of most of these grieving people - not woke, but asleep. They've been sung a lullaby filled with magical phrases, given warm pablum, tucked in, and their fingers placed on the lever marked R. Even while they spend time shouting about their favorite zombie, they miss the most important message it supposedly uttered while they dream of heaven. It was radical, it was unexpected, it was selfless - sacrifice everything for others.
And if they want to turn their frowns upside down, they'll have to exactly that: turn against their party, be shunned in their communities, maybe even become destitute because of the positions. They probably won't have to spend their life's blood, but to somebody waking up, it'll feel like it.
It’s the typical “I never thought the leopard would eat my face, but I’ll continue to vote for the leopard”mentality. No one should ever lose a child to a mass shooter. No one should ever have to face a mass shooter. “Guns over people” shouldn’t be any state’s motto.
GOP politicians are too cowardly to save the country from black shirt Trumpism. Why would anyone think they would stick their necks out just to keep a few schoolchildren from getting shot? Taxes must be cut and pregnancies must be forced. Dead schoolchildren is part of the cost of doing business.
It isn't as if gun owners don't have any rights, it's just that a great many of them have convinced themselves their rights trump everyone else's. Their precious gun rights come far ahead of the rights of the general public to expect a reasonable level of public safety. When Sandy Hook failed to move this country, I knew nothing was going to happen any time soon. It will take a generation of young people who grew up with active shooter drills because the people representing them in Congress were too spineless to take on the gun lobby, to change things.
Well, if it comes down to honest introspection by conservative Christians, we’re all fucked.
I must have said it a dozen times or more: this is what happens when lawmakers elevate a THING above the people they are supposed to represent. Ultimately, though, that really isn't what's happening. It's more like the lawmakers have prioritized the money they get from the NRA over the wishes of their constituents. Either way you slice it, the kids get shot and the members of the state government refuse to do anything about it.
Perhaps the lesson of the Covenant school shooting will finally be to vote those representatives out. Nice dream. Be nicer if I actually believed it.
Leaders of the Leopards Eating Faces Party surprised when Leopards eat *their* faces, too.
"But, but, but but, but....", said one pearl-clutching society matron. "This isn't supposed to happen to, to...We Wealthy Whites! We bought those electeds fair and square, they're supposed to do what we tell them to do!", exclaimed a local business owner and church deacon whose children attend the school. Jesus could not be reached for comment.
"If we want people to change their minds on any issue, we can’t be angry if that change only occurs after it affects them personally."
As a counselor, I was in the business of helping people change. When they came into my office, they didn't want to change, they just wanted to feel better. I didn't get angry at them, but I did have to patiently and lovingly stay with them as they hurt worse and worse. The human brain is fairly good at finding truth, but it's excellent at finding comfort. Change, even for the better, is not comfortable. With very rare exception, people change only when the pain of staying the same hurts much worse than the pain of changing. Not just a little worse; it has to be a lot worse.
People don't change their retrogressive or bigoted views until they or one of their loved ones is seriously harmed or even killed because of those views. Even then, they will often make as minimal a change as they think they must in order to feel better. The brain's feel-better imperative remains in place.
Of course I can empathize with those parents who appealed to their elected lawmakers, but apparently their pain of staying the same is just beginning. They're going to have to change their politics and change their voting habits, or it will all stay at the same not-quite-painful-enough level.
Oh, but several prominent conservatives 𝘥𝘪𝘥 start calling for gun control after this shooting. I distinctly remember that perpetually-constipated asshole Tucker Carlson running segments in the aftermath calling for people to be banned from owning guns at all... 𝘪𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘴. Hundreds of shootings in a row, thousands of victims, nearly all perpetrated by cis/het conservative white men? How dare anyone even talk about gun control at a time like this! One shooting by someone who might be trans? All trans people are clearly dangerous, take their guns away!
Hypocrisy- it's the Republican way. If they didn't have double standards, they'd have no standards at all.
I'm going to be honest here because I think that's what's needed - less sugarcoating and more bald truth.
'“When is it going to be the right group of people that gets affected for someone to listen?” Ms. Joyce asked...' Allow me to clarify here, Ms. Joyce, 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒃𝒍𝒆𝒎. I say that because you've seen the issue here, and after encountering difficulties, you haven't done the one thing you can personally do to push meaningful change by your own admission: stop voting for these people. Blaming lawmakers for doing what you elected them to do is nonsensical, they're just following instructions at this point. Unless you want to make some ill-advised and unwise attempt to replicate the same violence on these lawmakers that occurred when your children were injured, they have no intention of ever listening to you on the subject.
Stop expecting someone else deal with the problem and start working on it yourself. The easiest start is to change your vote, then get better acquainted with unbiased material on the subject. Good luck.
"The Covenant School, where tuition can run up to $16,500 a year. "
I bet they're also wondering how they can get taxpayers to cover their tuition.
The same Rethuglikkkan lawmakers who, you should pardon the expression, consistently shoot down sensible gun legislation, work in a building where firearms aren't allowed. They feel no threat. No sense of personal danger. What were to happen if someone were to be able to smuggle a weapon inside and gun down one or more of these ammosexuals? With their illusion of safety/immunity gone, would they finally act when it was THEIR lives that were on the line?
I feel for all children (minors and adults) who died because of their or other parents stupidity. For theses conservative christians, until you take your head of your ass you don't deserve compassion. It's what you did to other families.
I was glad to see the statement about the kind of politicians people are electing being a large part of the problem. If voters in the various states keep sending irresponsible, right-wing pols to state houses, nothing will ever change. And let's not forget how Scalia and the SC misinterpreted the 2nd amendment to give almost unlimited scope for gun owners. They ignored the historical context, enabling the crazies to say the Founders wanted us to own guns to protect ourselves from the govt. when in fact they wanted a "well-regulated militia." Not the camo-clad loonies we have today, but communities wanting to protect themselves if the Brits came back for seconds or Indians on the frontier attacked them. So now we have a right mess and no good way to get out of it.
"If we want people to change their minds on any issue, we can’t be angry if that change only occurs after it affects them personally."
Well, obviously, here's the problem. We know that hyper conservatives and hyper conservative Republicans don't seem to care about anything until the leopards have eaten their faces. Then they care about it. Unfortunately, they went to fellow hyper conservatives whose faces have not yet been eaten-- In short, to people who already couldn't possibly not care any less than they already don't.
I feel very sorry for the kids, of course. As an atheist, I think we have only one life to live and it is the greatest tragedy not to be able to live it. But I don't feel too much for the parents.
It is the opposite of what is on the lips of most of these grieving people - not woke, but asleep. They've been sung a lullaby filled with magical phrases, given warm pablum, tucked in, and their fingers placed on the lever marked R. Even while they spend time shouting about their favorite zombie, they miss the most important message it supposedly uttered while they dream of heaven. It was radical, it was unexpected, it was selfless - sacrifice everything for others.
And if they want to turn their frowns upside down, they'll have to exactly that: turn against their party, be shunned in their communities, maybe even become destitute because of the positions. They probably won't have to spend their life's blood, but to somebody waking up, it'll feel like it.
It’s the typical “I never thought the leopard would eat my face, but I’ll continue to vote for the leopard”mentality. No one should ever lose a child to a mass shooter. No one should ever have to face a mass shooter. “Guns over people” shouldn’t be any state’s motto.
Being "one of the good ones" and $10 will get you a drink at Starbucks.