Rambo Teachers

The sign above can be found outside of Argyle High School, about an hour from my school. I have been on the campus (it's very swanky) and know some of their teachers. Most of the Argyle teachers I have talked to don't like that sign or what it represents either. 

Since I'm a teacher, people have been asking me my opinion about arming teachers.

Seriously?

Rarely have I heard such a stupid, ill-considered, asinine, terrible idea.

Again, the arming teachers debate is most likely just a red herring, a distraction from the real issue of mass shootings at schools.

There was an armed deputy officer at the high school in Parkland. He froze up. He did not go in during the shootings. If a trained officer freezes up in a crisis situation, how much more likely a teacher?

Teachers are educators, not soldiers. Training? Have you been to most trainings for anything? The instructor wants your money and to get done as soon as possible. Doesn't matter what kind of training it is. Even with actual, legit gun training, most teachers are not equipped for battle. Crisis training is a long, involved and expensive process. Who's going to pay for it? Especially now with tax cuts?

We. Are. Teachers. Not. Soldiers. 

I know a lot of teachers. I do not want them packing heat. That's stupid. Think a class of teenagers can't overpower a teacher and take their weapon? A teacher distracted by the million other things teachers have to think about during a class period?

A really awful, horrible idea. One of the worst.

The calculus is simple: more guns leads to more violence.

The data backs that up time and time again. The more people who have guns the more likely they are going to use their guns. That's not opinion, that's simple arithmetic.

Education is supposed to be a safe place. Kids have enough to worry about. They shouldn't have to worry about teachers with a gun in a holster. Such a stupid idea. Provide better school resource officers and provide them with better training. You should see some of the slaps who have been hired for school security. We've had some excellent officers. We've also had some that made you think 'what were they thinking hiring that guy?' But with lack of funding,sometimes you gotta hire you can.

But it's all a distraction.

The NRA and Trump want to distract you from the real issues. Too many guns. Too many semi-automatic weapons. Too many assault rifles. Lax background checks. Too many loopholes. The ease of buying guns. The ease for the mentally ill to get guns. The ease for kids to get guns. The violence on television, movies and video games. The lack of funding for mental health issues. The incongruity of gun laws from state to state and community to community. The lack of coordination between law enforcement and mental health specialists. Domestic abusers getting guns easily. Magazine sizes. Bumper stocks. And more.

These are the real issues the NRA and their lackeys want you to forget about. These guys are crafty, clever men. They know exactly what they are doing. Don't buy into their scam.

Guns make killing a whole heck easier, guns are everywhere and they are easy to get. That's the problem.

paths

I'd rather be called a heretic for loving and accepting people no matter where they are in their journey than respectable for condemning people because their journey doesn't follow the exact same path as mine.

single shot

Let's look at the Second Amendment, shall we?

The Second Amendment was always understood in being related to a well regulated militia. The right to bear arms were about militias. Militias made up the bulk of American fighting forces against the British in the American Revolution. In the 1780's, everyone knew what a militia was and how important they had been in the victory over the British Empire. Notice the words "well regulated." Gun control is implied in the Constitution. It's right there. "Well regulated." The Supreme Court upheld this idea many times over the years.

Funny how so-called strict constitutional constructionists are only constructionist when it fits their world view. Funny how you see that little quirk in fundamentalism of all stripes.

But maybe you don't read it that way. Fair enough. There is a period in between the well regulated militia and the right to bear arms statements. That little dot can be confusing. Forget the Founder's intent for a moment (wait, what? says the libertarian demagogue). Lets forget about phrasing and correlation and semantics and all that hard stuff. Let's look at the historical context.

The world of the founding fathers was radically different than the world we live in today. As they wrote the Second Amendment there's no way they could have imagined AR-15's, massive magazines, and rapid fire handguns. They lived in the world of single shot rifles and if wealthy, dueling pistols. When they talked about arms they weren't talking about the kind of arms the NRA throws fits about these days. I don't think anyone would mind Charlton Heston holding up that old rifle on the podium if that was the only type of weapons the NRA wanted to protect. But they don't want to even allow you to begin a discussion about the absurdity of civilian ownership of weapons of mass destruction. Madison, Jefferson, Washington, all those guys were products of the Enlightenment. Rationality was of upmost importance. It's pretty clear they would be horrified by the irrationality of the guns rights movement today.

More context.

They lived in a world that was rural. Hunting was essential to survival and not just for getting food. Wild animals were a real threat. Life was dangerous in rural America. Native Americans being forced off their land were a threat to American farmers. Law and order often didn't extend very far past town limits. That's the world the founders were familiar with.

Yes, the threat of a tyrannical government oppressing the people was in the back of their minds. They had experienced that personally with the British. And the Electoral College exists because of their fear of mob rule. The Bill of Rights exist because of their concerns.

But today, an AR-15 is not going to stop the United States from coming after you if things go fascist or Stalinist. If an authoritarian government takes over the United States of America, your glock is not going to stop their smart bombs from blowing up your house. There may have once been a balance between the citizenry and the military. In the late eighteenth century there may have been more of a balance between the citizen militia and the standing American Army. But not today. The Military Industrial Complex has created a force so powerful and so strong, that if it came under the power of an autocrat, they will laugh at your assault rifle as they roll over you in their tanks. Your assault rifle is not going to help you against a tyrannical government no matter how many times you watch Red Dawn. It's a false hope.

Ballots, not bullets will keep our democracy safe from tyranny.

Enough

We have a gun violence problem in this country.

Duh, right?

But I have friends who go ballistic if I even say something that simple. If I put that statement on facebook, my feed would light up!

Notice I didn't say anything about taking guns away. I didn't mention gun control. I just said we have a gun violence problem in the United States.

Let the knee jerk reactions begin. Let emotionalism take over. Let people start crying out "Fake News!" Let the red herring arguments begin..."more people die from bike accidents, do we need bike control?" "Knives kill, do we need knife control?" "A gun is a tool, do you want to ban hammers?" "Guns don't kill people, people kill people." "Chicago has strict gun control yet has more murders than any other city." "It's not a gun problem, its a sin problem." "It's a mental health issue."

There may be a slight dose of truth to some of those statements but they ignore the complexity of the issue.

The United States has the highest rate of mass shootings of any industrialized nation on Earth. We have the highest percentage of gun deaths for industrialized nations in the world per capita. Even though America's population makes up only 4% of the world, 50% of the world's civilian held guns are in the United States. There are enough guns in the United States for every man, woman and child in the nation to own one. These statistics rank way above any other nation on Earth.

But let's not be reasonable. We can't rationally think there's any correlation or causality between the number of guns in this country and our levels of gun violence. The NRA says the stats lie. The stats are skewed and inaccurate. Fake news. The sources must unreliable.

Mental heath issue? Yes. Definitely. There's a mental health crisis in this country. But you don't hear that argument thrown out when the shooter is Muslim. Or black. Or an immigrant. The mental health issue only comes up conveniently when the shooter is white. And mass shooters are by far more likely to be white. And male.

If the shooter is Muslim the talk turns towards travel bans. If the shooter is black the talk turns towards criminality and gangs. If the shooter is an immigrant the talk turns towards building a wall. If it's a white guy, then it's all about mental health.

"It's a sin problem." Really? Then let's legalize everything. That's like saying "It's not a murder problem, it's a sin problem." That's absurd. Of course it's a sin problem. But it can also be a law problem. Very few people have problems with seat belt laws. You don't hear people debating the philosophical issues of a government imposing rules on seat belts on its populace. Why not? Because seat belt laws make sense. They save lives.

Just forty years ago we had massive amounts of auto fatalities. No one wore seat belts. Was it a sin problem...people endangering themselves, perhaps leaving their kids orphans? Of course not! Most cars didn't even have seat belts. But as a nation we calmly, and coolly and rationally analyzed the problem. And we, as a society came to the conclusion that seat belts could save lives. Yet some needed further inducement. So laws were put into place. I remember not wearing seat belts. I also remember how strange it was to have to put them on. Now, the opposite is true. I feel strange not putting on my seat belt. Why? Because with the knowledge we now have, it's stupid not to wear a seat belt. Look how our attitudes have changed! And for the betterment of society! All due to rational analysis of a social issue!

So bring up bike accidents as a red herring to distract and I will counter that yes, if you don't wear a bike helmet you are stupid and irresponsible and maybe we need tighter helmet laws. Most motorcyclists are coming around to helmet laws. Why? Because they save lives. Bringing up something that takes more lives than guns doesn't take away from the fact we need to look at gun violence. We are capable of analyzing more than one social issue at the same time aren't we?

Chicago? Yes they have strict gun laws. But those laws are worthless as long as neighboring communities don't have similar laws. Those laws must also work in conjunction with solving systemic poverty and racism in Chicago. No one said it's all about guns, or just about guns. Guns are just one part of the problem...a major problem since they are a device capable of killing people with great rapidity. But let's not be simplistic. Most difficult problems have many many facets to consider.

The CDC is not even allowed to analyze the problem of gun violence because of the immense lobbying pressure of politicians by the NRA. The CDC can't even study the issue. Because the NRA knows what will happen when rationality enters the picture.

People care more about their guns than America's children. Protest that all you want but actions speak louder than words. Guns have become our idols. As a result we can't even begin to have a rational conversation. AR-15s? Seriously? No one needs an assault rifle. They are not meant for hunting. They are not a defensive weapon. They are an assault weapon, a weapon of attack. They are meant to kill human beings. They are meant to kill human beings with great rapidity. And a little league team around the corner from my house was recently selling raffle tickets to win an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle. As a fund raiser for a fifth grade baseball team!

I think that needs to be talked about! I think that should cause us to pause! I think that needs consideration! 

But the NRA does not want such a discussion to even begin. We are not allowed to analyze the issue. You can't even discuss the issue. That is beyond irrationality.

olympic meh

It's about that time when I comment on the Olympics. But this year I'm just kind of meh bout the whole thing. Some of my favorite Winter Olympians retired either after the last go around (Bode Miller) or just recently (Julia Mancuso). The downhill course is an atrocity, shortened to accommodate the high winds that have plagued the alpine events. It's pretty much a Super G course right now which kind of taints the whole thing. At least Ted Ligety is still skiing.

I also used to get Universal Sports for free over the antenna. This allowed me to watch World Cup Ski seasons throughout the year and keep up with the skiiers during non-Olympic years. But Universal yanked their channel off free TV a few years ago and so I don't get to watch alpine skiing any more. I don't know many of the alpine skiiers as a result and I'm not that invested.

NBC tries to amp up Shaun White and all the other snowboarders, but those sports still don't feel Olympian to me. Maybe I've become an old grump. I'm also tired of politics (both social and governmental) being played out in the sports arena. I'm tired of no real foil for the USA now that the USSR is gone. Tired that Olympic hockey means nothing now. They don't show much luge or bobsled. Too much figure skating which apparently brings in the viewers.

Maybe I'm just too tired. Go America.

So It Is...

Snagged this on iTunes the other day. This album is so good. I've long been a fan of the Preservation Hall Jazz Band. This is their newest record and is among the best I've heard from them. I saw them about 15 years ago in Dallas at the Meyerson Symphony Hall. I have a framed black and white sketch of the original line up, on the wall of our converted studio/music room of our house above the piano. I love these guys and hope sometime to see them play in their home base in New Orleans.

I first heard tracks from their new album on an episode of Prairie Home Companion (now Live From Here with Chris Thile) in the fall. They appeared again as guests a few weeks ago when Live From Here broadcast from New Orleans.

My fave track is La Malanga. But the whole album is a masterpiece. We need more joyous music like this in gloomy times.