by Lynne Mandaville

Another unholy, unnatural disaster!

It has just happened again in the last couple of hours Wednesday. The 18th school shooting in the United States since Jan. 1, 2018. Almost one every other day. And not just a shooting in general. A school shooting. A SCHOOL SHOOTING! Dead and injured CHILDREN! 

This is no longer an aberration in America. It is the new normal. Got that?  NORMAL!

While I watch Nicole Wallace, and then Chuck Todd on MSNBC, as they report this horrendous, breaking news, the talking heads are discussing what is, to me, in the 21st century civilization, the unthinkable. They are extolling the “silver lining” of current preparedness, the practices and protocols put in place since the Columbine shootings in 1999, and refined after every shooting since, for the past 19 years.

They are praising the tactical response to the “event” in Parkland Fla. They are waxing thankful for the active shooter training that has existed in this school (which, truthfully, has probably minimized the carnage). There are dozens of police vehicles, hundreds of cops, and numerous emergency response vehicles and EMTs tending to the (so far) 14 injured and even more confirmed dead.  How is this OK?

On the TV screen, I see:

-a school parking lot with a tank and uncountable SWAT vehicles

-students streaming from the school, their arms raised high above their heads

-students passing check points, dropping their backpacks, purses, whatever, in   growing  heaps on the asphalt

-triage units set up on the campus lawn to care for, not victims of a natural         d disaster, but victims of an unholy, unnatural disaster

A Florida senator (I didn’t catch his name) has just said during these breaking news interviews, and I paraphrase, that someday the American public is going to get fed up with this violence and demand that Congress do something about it. 

HONESTLY?  

Has he not been listening for the last few years, or, at least, since the Las Vegas shootings? Has he not bothered to clean the shit out of his ears to hear the majority of Americans who have been crying out for gun reform?

I truly do despair for the future of the human race in America. We collectively are dumb as a bag of doorknobs. We put up with so much bullshit from our elected officials. We don’t use the brains we were born with to address such a shameful social condition as this epidemic of useless murders.

I know the Second Amendment will once again rear its head as an excuse for inaction on any front. But one voice did speak volumes this afternoon, and, again, I’m sorry I did not get his name. He said, in essence, if we do nothing else, every one of us who owns a gun or guns must get down to the business of securing them safely away from thieves, or, unfortunately, young or mentally unbalanced family members who might be inclined to use them impulsively.  This, alone, could make an immense difference in this type of shooting.

Until we know all the gory particulars of this chilling school shooting, go secure your firearms. Whether you use them solely for hunting or target practice, or if you own them for home security, lock them safely away. Do it now! And if you are among those millions of Americans who are mad as hell, call your congress people right away and demand they get off their asses and get it done to make this one among the last to happen in our democracy! 

Some day each and every one of us may be called to account for our willingness to let this continue. How will  you be able to say you did everything in your power to bring it to an end?