Hey, it’s June already.
It’s been raining here. All of May seemed rainy and cold, and at times, snowy. Snowy. At least here in the east of Oregon. Or the west of Idaho. I straddle the border between two states. I’m literally on Ore-Ida land. How old were you when you learned Ore-Ida stood for Oregon-Idaho? Yeah, at times I am quite clueless, blind, stupid and out of the loop. Ain’t we all? I hope?
Have gotten some acceptances. Some rejections. Have had a major case of the ‘don’t wanna write’ and it’s all I can do to write a short story. Making myself write, ugh. Need to fix my total antipathy to writing. The only way to do that is to write. You can’t take pills for it or can you? Is there a pill for the don’t wanna write malaise?
Trying Stranger Things, again. I started it at work, when I worked graveyards. Trying to pay attention to this dense, 80’s throwback horror fantasy family drama teen angst shit was just about nigh impossible. But hey, loved the sheriff guy, who’s this giant cuddly grumpy teddy bear and is that Winona Ryder playing with Christmas lights? It is! Evil scientists! MK Ultra! Nancy and Steve and Jonathon, just stab me in the knees already. I’m on season two.
I also caught up with the Boys, now on its third season. Holy exploding body parts, Batman. Hughie annoys me so much. That’s the Billy Joel listening Debbie Downer. Other than that, enjoying the return of this series. Don’t wanna give away anything but if you like raunchy, violent, funny anti-superheroes stuff, this might be your cup of blood. It’s strictly for adults-only, btw. So, be warned there.
Oh yeah, we’ve had several more mass shootings here in Amerigun and nothing’s being done to curtail them beyond ‘tots and pears’ and ‘it’s a mental health problem’. After which GOP politicians resolutely vote against any and all social and medical programs that might help people with mental health issues…fuck me, same as it ever was. Uvalde didn’t change those in power’s minds about guns. Sandy Hook sure as shit didn’t. Columbine, nope. You can trace the mass murdering sprees…fuckadoodle.
That train has wrecked, exploded, burned out and now there’s a stack of trains waiting to wreck so we can all watch, mumbling thoughts and prayers at it. Clumsy prose that cannot adequately express my motherfucking fury at all this, my sadness and grief that those in power chose the guns over the people being slaughtered in public places at such a merry and ghastly rate.
One of the ‘answers’ is arming the teachers. Turning teachers into soldiers responsible for not only protecting their classrooms, after a bare minimum of training with firearms, but getting the students to safety and seeing to wounds, etc, etc.
You know, like soldiers do in combat situations. Beau of the Fifth column took this one apart. If you don’t know what that is, he’s on Youtube taking apart conspiracy theories, gun myths, and explaining what stuff actually means to his best abilities. He’s able to reach those a lot of well-meaning folks can’t.
Another problem with arming teachers is– cost.
Who’s paying for whatever training far right lawmakers hastily propose or don’t and who’s paying for the guns and ammo? Guns are spendy. Ammo is spendy. If you arm all the teachers in your school and the staff, are you arming the staff like janitors, food preppers, etc…that’s a big chunk of your budget, if not all of your budget and then some. Not to mention the ammo for all those guns and the trainings and the classes you’d have to take and…mmm.
Does it have to be a handgun? Can you bring in a hunting rifle or a combat-ready weapon or your ancestor’s flintlock?
And oh, liability. If a teacher shoots a student, what then? If a student gets the teacher’s gun, shoots people, what then? Does the school have to take out even more insurance, get lawyers on retainer just in case? Or is that solely on the overburdened, underpaid shoulders of the teachers and staff at that school? Do you have to now buy liability insurance on top of paying for your own firearms training class/es? As teachers are expected to foot the bill a lot of time for keeping their teaching licenses updated and current, will they also be expected to train with guns on their own time and their own dime?
Or will magical funds appear to pay for all this soldier training for public school teachers? When that same funding can’t be found for updating classrooms or making sure all the kids attending get a meal to eat during their school day.
Teachers already have to buy their own classroom supplies.
They often have to buy their students lunches or provide breakfasts to at-risk kids. I did this, when I worked Special Education, in Oregon, for outings where my charges didn’t have enough to buy a lunch when out in the community. I noticed other teachers providing snacks and meals, out of their own scanty paychecks, while also buying art supplies, basic classroom supplies…ugh.
All because lawmakers have cut school budgets to the bare bones and then some, in the hopes of getting rid of public education. Making kids attend spendy private schools which push the Christian agenda like mad or force women to stay at home teaching their own kids as daddies need to go to work to earn that bacon, just like the old days.
Because today’s kids are soft! Soft, I tell ya! That’s why we’re having all these school shootings! Soft kids! They’re being indoctrinated by liberal teachers and taught how to give blowjobs at six years old! They’re being forced to change their genders by these liberal teachers! I have to call my daughter my son now because of liberal teachers!
You can go down that rabbit hole if you wish. It’s ugly, frightening and happening at a rapid clip right now. The ever-increasing spate of PTA meetings full of red-faced shouters screaming about needing to censor books, that teachers are too ‘woke’, that the gay agenda is turning kids into transgender freakshows ready to cut off their own bits to satisfy fashion.
Seriously, you can wander down to your own school board meeting and hear this stuff for free. You can sit there and chuckle about it, until you realize these people RUN THE FUCKING SCHOOLS IN A LOT OF PLACES. And can outlaw whatever they want, including trans people. And do and have.
See Florida and Idaho and…
Idaho is banning books, trying to erase LGTBQ folks and blaming their problems on…m’kay.
The hysterical attacks on teachers and CRT. Transgender anything, drag queen story hour, LGTBQ blah blah, not teaching the real American history that touts white men as saviors of the planet and the ones who built everything and invented everything.
Also, that the Founding Fathers wanted America to be Jesusland full of guns and manly men running everything.
Well, the men running everything part is true. If you know anything at all about early American history and why amendments got added to the Constitution and why, you’ll understand why those claiming the Constitution was written as some sort of weird praise prose to the Bible is just horseshit. Plain ole steaming road apples.
David Barton and others are pushing this alt US history.
It’s weird that teachers are both soldiers expected to defend their corner of some savage battlefield and yet to blame for all of society’s ills in America.
Teachers indoctrinate your babies on social justice agendas yet shoot to kill those trying to kill your kids. It’s AOC and her alter ego, Gun Mama. It’s the weirdest fucking cognitive dissonance imaginable.
To those outside the USA. I don’t know what to tell you. I don’t know what to write about on this chokehold the gun lobby has over my country but it’s killing us in large numbers.
Gun deaths are now the leading cause of departure of this earth for American kids. You’d think the pro-life party would, um, do something about that. Actually do something other than ignore that thoroughly or propose even more guns to flood society.
But hey, selling guns is the GOP hustle. It’s the sole job of the NRA or the National Rifle Association, to sell guns. They pay the politicians big bucks to keep those sales up. The NRA didn’t used to be a scary ass fascist organization run by blood-hungry ghouls. It used to be about gun safety and limiting who could have a fucking gun. That’s right. I believe it was started after the US Civil War to teach people how to shoot correctly, as it was noticed Union soldiers couldn’t shoot for shit. I’d have to look that up and frankly, why bother with facts when making up shit travels so much father these harrowing days?
Okay, founded in 1871 to advance markmenship. This whole American stance that guns are sacred is a new fucking concept, relatively speaking. It has not been with American ideals since 1776. Not even close. I’d say the last forty years or so, maybe even less time. Yet another rabbit warren to pick a hole to go down. Darkness, dirt, worms and wide-eyed rabbits galore.
There doesn’t seem to be a last straw kind of incident to ‘wake’ up the GOP gun zealots to the danger of just letting anyone get all the guns they want, with little to no background checks or requirements they get trained or get wellness checks of any kinds.
There are loopholes at gun shows for selling guns, btw. Gun shows. Drown in that one. Go ahead. I’ll wait.
Each state seems to have different laws regarding guns, which is why Chicago often gets targeted by the right wing, as the surrounding states have lax gun laws. People can just bring a gun to Chicago’s no-gun zones and…yeah.
And hey, Chicago isn’t even in the top ten for violent cities. I think the number one city for that is St. Louis, Missouri. But that never seems to come up on Fox News…
All right. Oh, another mass shooting took place? While a mass shooting was already happening? I guess I should scream about doors and arming everyone in public places is the answer instead of sensible gun control methods. Cause freedom eagle apple pie freedom Jesus.
Tots and pears!
ANN WUEHLER 