We’ve been this way before
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.
Why was Abbott surrounded by law enforcement? The shooter was already dead!
Have you noticed where ever Abbott shows up, he’s wearing a shirt with a different patch on it, and with his sleeves rolled up? It’s not like he’s going to do any heavy lifting!
Note to Texas law enforcement!
1It’s time you started exercising and lose those big guts! I was pertaining to the 3 law enforcement hogs that jumped up in front of Abbott to tell Beto to hit the road! There must be at least 250-300 lbs of gut, between those 3!
And yet, the cops waited outside of the school to react, while 19 children and their teachers were gunned down in a classroom. They had no guts, no courage, and no conscience to stop this.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/texas-school-shooting-police-face-questions-response_n_628f8fcde4b0edd2d0209e00
2Nick, I am so sorry you had to go through that with your daughter. As a grandparent of college age kids and mother of a teacher, I worry all the time that something like this will happen. But I fear the genie is out of the bottle and not going back. There are around 400 million guns in this country, and if the GOP and the Supreme Court have their way, that number will only increase. It’s madness.
3That photo should be captioned “David and the Goliaths.” This was a ridiculous photo op for those GOPers who should be hanging their heads in shame. Beto sent a long email out yesterday and DIDN’T ask for money. How many GOP fundraisers do you think went out yesterday?
4Grandma Ada, can you link to his letter some way? I would like to read it.
5WATCH: Texas Police Spox on Live TV Confirmed Cops Went In for Their Own Kids During Uvalde Shooting
https://www.mediaite.com/news/watch-texas-police-spox-on-live-tv-confirmed-cops-went-in-for-their-own-kids-during-uvalde-shooting/?utm_source=fark&utm_medium=website&utm_content=link&ICID=ref_fark
6When someone writes a book about the Uvalde school massacre, it can be titled “Profiles in Cowardice” and highlight Gov. Greg Abbott.
7Fred Farkleshine @ 7,
This smells strongly like a class action lawsuit.
8The Grand Ol` Perverts want more children to be killed .
9It’s all NSGOP theater. As much as they do this, you’d think they’d be pretty good at it by now, but no. It might help if they’d change the script (‘good guy with a gun’, ‘violent video games’, ‘mental health’, ‘couldn’t have been prevented’, ‘stronger doors’, ‘thoughts and prayers’, etc.), but that would require that they get someone besides the NRA to do their thinking for them.
10If I run the ball off tackle for five yards a pop I never have to draw up an intricate pass play. Voters haven’t forced them to come up with anything new.
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