Merrick Garland was selected to give the commencement address at Harvard this year.

Garland, who is a Harvard alumnus, pointed to efforts to undermine the right to vote, violence against particular groups of people, the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol and the Russian invasion of Ukraine abroad as the “many ways in which democracy is under threat.”

He also asked the students to devote at least part of their lives to public service.

“You are the next generation that must devote yourselves to preserving our democracy and helping others protect theirs,” Garland said. “And although what I am asking of you is daunting, I know that you are the next generation that will fulfill the promise this country represents. I know that our democracy will be stronger by the time it is your turn to pass the baton.”

Okay, so is he telling us that we’ve given up until the next generation takes over?

If only we had somebody in public service who could do something about undermining the right to vote, violence against particular groups of people, the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol …

You know, maybe a current public servant or something like that. It seems that the Department of Empty Platitudes is doing their jobs, though.

The official definition of a terrorist is “that of a person that uses unlawful violence and intimidation against civilians in the pursuit of political aims.” You’ll immediately notice that at no time does it actually mention death or murder. That is what a lot of people mistake for terrorism. Death is but a side effect. The real goal is the political agenda.

Shortly after the Uvalde massacre, the following advertisement started making it circles around the internet. As you look at this picture, I want you to remember one thing. This isn’t the picture of some jackass taking a picture with his son. That would be bad enough. This is a picture from the maker of the gun designed to sell it. It’s a damn advertisement.

Now, let’s first dispense with a few misconceptions. This was intentional. You can’t imagine the number of people that had to sign off on this advertisement. This isn’t the work of some junior level temp that sent out an advertisement like some kind of rogue Bond villain. Dozens of people viewed it and at least half of dozen had to sign off before releasing it into the wild.

Tbere are a few things we know. The first thing is that even the rank and file in the NRA isn’t on board with what leadership is doing. Leadership doesn’t represent them anymore. We also know that the NRA has shifted over the intervening decades where they represent the interests of gun manufacturers more than the interests of individual gun owners.

For those keeping up, Daniel Defense was the producer of the weapon. They are the ones that released the picture above. So, in essence, the NRA and these gun manufacturers are willing to lie to their constituents about the availability of guns and the political motivations of Congressional Democrats and Joe Biden. They want to scare the flock into buying more guns.

So, they want to lie and intimidate the people into doing what they want. Just ask yourself how you feel when you see that picture above. What is the gut emotion in play here? Mind you, I don’t know that the NRA or Daniel Defense wants people to die. However, they are not above using their deaths in order to further their political agenda. They want more people to buy guns. They want more guns and bigger guns. We already have more guns than people. Why not two times? Three times? Four times?

So, when an interest group and a company uses fear and intimidation to further a political agenda what exactly do we call that? What do we call it when that interest group continues to hold it’s rallies and conventions days after these tragedies? It isn’t hard to picture members of the Taliban or Al Queda dancing up and down on 9/11. Heck, politicians used those images to stoke anger in us. Simply transpose the images of politicians and rednecks dancing on stage and cheering and it is the same exact thing.

I want you to take a good look at that picture above. Is that a picture from a company that is so tone deaf that they just don’t know they are being overwhelmingly offensive? Do you really believe that? Or, is that the photo designed to trigger people on one side or another. What do you call people that use fear and intimidation for their own political ends and profit? I wish there was a name for that. It’s right there on the tip of my tongue.

I have done this one before. All that is old is new again. The overwhelming theme that has occurred this week in the argument over gun control are those three words. Because I can. I have gotten into debates with multiple folks on social media and all of them have asserted the same things. The second amendment gives me the right to do it. Of course, whether that’s true or not is up for debate. I don’t have time for that debate in these spaces right now.

Because I can. That has become to conservative mantra in the United States. It has become the mantra of the MAGA crowd. Because I can. I can cheat on my taxes. I can commit fraud on the American public. I can grab the private parts of women. I can be selfish and refuse to wear a mask. I can be selfish and refuse to get a vaccine or follow basic safety protocols. Because I can.

Because we can. Essentially, the difference between a fully functioning adult with moral autonomy and one that isn’t is the keen understanding between “can” and “should.” I’ve fought this my whole life. It’s a hard lesson to learn. That period of early adulthood is key. For the first time in your life you have autonomy from your parents. You CAN do things they would never allow you to do. Because we can. However, that is never the most important question. The most important question is whether we should.

I still remember vividly serving on the editorial board of my college newspaper. A student had been accused of sexual assault. He had not been charged. Journalistic ethics indicate you can report on it and publish his picture. So, the rest of the editorial board chose to do that. We have the right to do it. I didn’t think it was wise since we were a small campus and were the only source of news for the campus.

I lost that debate. They told me I wasn’t a journalism major and simply didn’t understand. We have the right to do it. Because we can. As it turned out, the charges were dropped. The student in question had an identical twin on campus. Both had to transfer to another university because of the fall out. The alleged victim recanted her story, so no one knows if an assault even occurred. Because we can.

All this happened because no one bothered to ask the important question: should we do this? Far too many people have made life more difficult, more painful, and more cruel because they’ve never bothered to ponder that question. Should we do this? Because I can has been the default position. Because I can has been the mantra that has driven this country into a ditch.

Naturally one could take this whole concept to its logical extreme, but any time a decision is made, the effects on those around us should be considered. Does my behavior present an inherent risk to those around me? Does my behavior make the world a better place or a worse place? Because I can is just simply not good enough. We need better. We deserve better.

Yesterday, the leaders of Texas and the GOP held one of their perfunctory press conferences. It was one of those deals where we decry the tragedy, offer our thoughts and prayers to the families of the victims, and tell ourselves there was nothing that we could have done to prevent it. One of these is done by rote. One of these are empty. One is a lie. I’ll leave you to figure out which one is which.

Yesterday, the Democratic contender for the governor of Texas decided to interrupt the proceedings. His message was simple. The performance art on stage was exactly that. We know how to prevent these things. We knew it would happen. We know not the exact time or the exact place, but we knew it would happen. Then, he was given the message we all are given in this moment: you are politicizing a tragedy.

Beto wasn’t taking it and decided to cause a scene. I’m not sure if what he did will help or hurt his election chances. My gut tells me a few things. First, it tells me that 95 percent or more of the voting public has already made up their minds. My gut tells me most Texans agree with Beto and most Texans think Greg Abbott has been a disastrous governor. My gut tells me all of this won’t matter and that Abbott will somehow win the election anyway.

Yesterday morning, our daughter texted us from school. She was hiding in a closet in her Chemistry classroom. She was looking around for items to throw in case a gunman penetrated the classroom and the closet space. It was somewhere between 15 minutes and 30 minutes until the district and/or news organizations finally said everything was okay. Those were the longest 15 to 30 minutes of my life.

Earlier this year, they essentially lost two days to bomb threats. We went through the same cycle of worry, dread, and relief. These two events are cruel reminders that we don’t have the control we think we do. They are cruel reminders that all of this can end in the blink of an eye. They are cruel reminders that we can’t afford to wait until “the time is right” to politicize a mass shooting.

Unfortunately, there is always a mass shooting in the forefront of our brain. Maybe we can politicize Buffalo now. In Texas, maybe we can politicize Santa Fe now. Maybe we can politicize church shootings, mall shootings, theatre shootings, and concert shootings. Maybe someone should send out a rule. Maybe it could be a mandatory waiting period.

I say to hell with that. I am not going to lose my daughter because a right wing politician doesn’t want to somehow suppress the image of 20+ dead Texas children and teachers while they accept a check from the gun lobby. I am not going to lose my daughter because the NRA wants to have their show and advertise their wares on the same week as a mass shooting in their state. If you are going to have the audacity to do that then you will have to stomach all of it. You will have to stand there and tell the world that you care more about someone’s right to own an automatic weapon than about the lives of school children. I’m going to politicize every damn second of it.

Either lives matter or they don’t. Either you care about the safety and security of our children or you don’t. Either you have compassion for all of the people walking this Earth or you don’t. Certainly compassionate and caring adults can differ on policy. We are all adult enough to realize that. Compassionate and caring adults do not have a waiting period to solve a problem. If the floods are coming you don’t make people wait to develop solutions not to drown. When people are freezing to death you don’t tell them that heat is political and shouldn’t be discussed during the crisis. The notion is patently ridiculous. When our children are being blown away at school it is most definitely a crisis and it is most definitely political. We better talk about it right damn now before the next one of these happens again.

Whenever these things come up, there are go to responses on the right. Sometimes it can be hard to penetrate those responses because they have been designed to shut down debate on gun control. These people get placed into two baskets. The first ones are the incendiary ones. They are a part of the leadership cult. They are purposefully trying to derail debate. The rest are just parroting what they hear. Many of them mean well, but they are helping the other side just the same. So, you will get a slight variance of these as you discuss this with friends and family.

1. The school’s security measures either failed them or they were not properly used. If they had been then the tragedy would have never occurred.

Usually, all it takes is to game this one out. Someone shows up with an automatic weapon, body armor, and numerous clips of ammunition then what is likely to happen? Of course, our response should vary slightly based on the person making this statement. Again, many are not in a psychological place to admit that they are not in control of their own destiny here. As the thinking goes, THEY did not use proper security, so THEY were not safe. WE use proper security, so WE will be safe. Understand that they need a reason to feel like it won’t happen to them.

2. If the teachers were armed then this wouldn’t have happened.

Okay, since I am in the classroom let me also game this situation out. Let’s pretend that we have a handful of professionals that are also trained and experienced in using a firearm. After all, we wouldn’t want old Ms. Jones to have to carry a weapon she’s never fired before. However, during one of these events you would have your two or three heroes going across campus in a matter of seconds and forced to make a split second decision to shoot someone that might be a student without hurting those around him (assuming it’s a male shooter).

Then, a few minutes later the SWAT team enters the building. They see what appears to be two, three, or four grown people holding guns and pointing it at each other. Who do they shoot exactly? How do they know who the good guys are with the guns and which one is the bad guy? You’d be looking at multiple dead bodies at that point.

3. We can’t enact X law because in this shooting Y occurred.

Remember this phrase: perfect is the enemy of good. There will be no perfect solutions. There will be no laws that prevent every single scenario. The goal is better and not perfect. We capture as many different scenarios as possible and realize there will be a new scenario. My sister (a head volleyball coach) has had to add to her rulebook every year. There are new scenarios to consider. This is like any other law and any other rule. People are creative and they dream up new ways to get what they want. We keep us as best we can. Remember the mantra: perfect is the enemy of good.

4. The kid was a disturbed kid and there was no telling that this would happen.

You will notice that a lot of these start to melt together. The best defense is to marry these together to make a response difficult. So, I repeat my response from the last one. If you think it’s a mental health problem then step up and make some suggestions. In a lot of these cases you had parents and neighbors that knew something was wrong. They were just powerless to stop it. We can be angry at the mother in the Sandy Hook case for instance. Her son was autistic and she introduced him to guns as a way to connect with him. We can lambast her all we want. She paid the ultimate price and we have to remember that she begged for help along the way because she knew her son was in trouble, There has to be a way for family, friends, and neighbors to alert authorities and actually get assistance and not be turned away. We need to figure this out AND we need common sense gun control legislation. This is not an either/or situation. It is both.

We have the smartest readers on the known internet here. Please feel free to add your own responses to these things in the comments. We need to help each other get through this and debate the friends, family members, and trolls they will encounter in our lives.

Thoughts and prayers. When one hears that phrase they have to suppress the rage that exists inside them. After all, there is nothing inherently wrong with thoughts and prayers. Surely you would rather have someone think about you and pray for you then do nothing at all. Moreover, everyone seems to offer that in these times and not everyone can be a bad actor.

There are three levels of response to these kinds of things. The first level is a gut reaction to the event. We hold our loved ones a little longer. We hug them a little more strongly. We seek the comfort of a beloved family pet and thank our lucky stars if no one we personally know was involved.

The second visceral reaction is one of unadulterated anger. My initial reaction was the same as Sandy Hook. It was the same as Santa Fe. It was the same as Columbine and Florida. It’s the exact same as Virginia Tech and Boulder as well. It was the same as Vegas. It was definitely the same as Buffalo.

People doing nothing other than going about their daily lives don’t deserve this. No one deserves this. It’s particularly cruel when it involves children. They had their whole lives in front of them. My first immediate thought is that the right can take their second amendment and shove it up their sanctimonious ass. They can take their thoughts and prayers and shove it up their sanctimonious ass. They can take their pro life hypocrisy and shove it up their sanctimonious ass. They don’t get to speak anymore. They get to sit down and shut the hell up so the adults can get to work.

Admittedly, as great as that feels to say, it doesn’t help the situation either. Sadness doesn’t help prevent the next one. Anger doesn’t help prevent the next one. Only action will help prevent the next one. So, any overtures to repeal the second amendment are going nowhere. We know that. The only thing it does is provide the other side with a juicy soundbite to play on the campaign trail. It’s time for adults to sit down and figure this thing out.

Universal background checks should be a thing. The assault weapons ban should be a thing. Mandatory waiting periods should be a thing. Gun registration should be a thing. Let the right prattle on about how this is a mental health issue. Great. Get up off your ass and actually do something about mental health then.

You don’t get to make excuses you have no intention of following through on just to deflect from the obvious gun problem we have. You don’t get to offer platitudes about this, that, and the other without offering real solutions. We pay you for solutions. We don’t pay you for thoughts and prayers. We don’t pay you to flee to Cancun. We don’t pay you to make excuses, obfuscate, or derail the legislative process. We pay you to make our lives better. We pay you to make our lives safer.

Maybe repealing the second amendment isn’t reasonable. We are allowed our immediate thoughts as we process yet another one of these. We are allowed our outward signs of anger after one of these that never should have happened in the first place. We are allowed to dream of a world where the United States can manage to be like every other industrialized nation in the world. So, no I will not take your guns. Joe Biden will not take your guns. Kamala Harris and every other Democrat will not take your guns. Just understand that deep down inside many of us want to.