Another shooting on a campus, this one a College at UVA. Meanwhile across the country in Idaho outside the campus four were found dead believed to be a homicide.
I wrote about the school I used to teach at and where I began my career in Teaching in 1996. It was the students who kept me going and I believed in them and with that I no longer do. I have come to fear and dislike them. The lack of any dignity for themselves and others is most apparent. It was happening long before Covid and I saw that in Nashville and now in Jersey City that is only further exacerbated by the pandemic and distinction between those who managed to attend private or charter schools that remained open or had access to better online learning tools that also allowed them to forge forward on the path of academia. But with that I have already written about the challenges and adjustments made by those who went onto higher learning and have struggled, often blaming others and leading to Professors being terminated as their work was too challenging, they were unavailable or many other factors that seemingly have little to do with their actual skills or abilities that lend to achievement. That is our current state of affairs and again has been happening for quite some time – lay blame, point fingers and deny any personal responsibility or have any accountability.
Now we have 99 problems that have come from the pandemic and the magnifying glass that was finally placed upon the social inequity of our country and its heavy systemic and broken systems that are racist and elitist enabled those who for whatever reason seemingly knew nothing about it did. They read the right books, attended the right protests and then went back home to post their endless diatribes on social media to validate and confirm their wokeness. And with that the pendulum swung from left to right and with that we now have curriculum banning, book banning, conversations and word banning and a divisiveness that is now entrenched with the words”crime” as the dog whistle to remind everyone that the others are dangerous and could do harm. What “they” do harm with is of course guns but that is okay as now we are opening the flood gates and allowing anyone within arms reach of a gun to have one. It is working out great as the age of shooters are declining as access to guns is increasing. Coincidence much?
The political divisiveness was always a problem but we are back to serious racial ones. For those who were citing George Floyd as their moment to defund the Police, I suggest they turn back the clock to Michael Brown, or earlier to Eric Garner (2014) or earlier to Amadou Diallo. Or to any number of Police Brutality cases that may or may not have ended with death but serious harm and long term damage. There are no shortage of them but until Michael Brown there was what? Little accountability or information with regards to the number of cases thanks to no single source of record keeping. There are so many different agencies that are under the umbrella of law enforcement it is why many did not know and with that so many Police who were ultimately let go for said behavior simply transferred to another agency and continued to act in the manner that was less about serving and protecting the public, but of their own needs and beliefs. Think about the amount of law enforcement in your community, the City Police, the State Patrol, the County Police, the Transit Enforcement, the Port Authority are just some that all work or have business here in New Jersey. Then you have the Federal Agencies and their distinct Police – the FDA, the FBI, the CIA, the ATF and all of them have jurisdictions that supersede the State and Municipal ones. Yeah you can run but you can never hide.
But the reality is that despite it all Guns are the most significant tool and weapon we carry. The ATF is the single largest organization in which to regulate and enforce gun legislation but we have little to NO federal laws over guns and with that the piecemeal of laws that States and Cities try to enact are now being taken to the largest Federal Court in the land to overturn them. One minute it is State’s rights to create and enforce laws regarding Abortion but not when it comes thanks to the pesky 2nd Amendment. So with that it is Check and Mate on gun control. And yet when it comes to ATF they are being played well by Chess Masters that defy game play.
The constant refrain is that it is a Mental Health issue , and with that the idea that anyone who is nuts will not be able to get a gun. Sure that is a belief, but despite it all few if any of the most recent shooters had a mental health “red flag” that would have prevented them from doing so. I point to the Michigan shooter as his Parents are awaiting trial for their role in enabling if not encouraging their fucked up son from having a gun despite the school sharing with them their concerns. Great parents there. And the same goes for the Parade kid whose Dad bought him his gun. More shooters, more guns and more dead. Thoughts and prayers.
And so now with the crime bullshit being the least mentioned factor in the midterm and abortion as the reason many went to the polls will anything change? In a word? Fuck no. Okay that is two but in reality we are a Nation of Karen’s and Ken’s (their male equivalent) who are sure they are right about their indignant feelings of entitlement and rightness. That is the new “wokeness” as the aggrieved state of it all is about their inconveniences, their accommodations and their betterness about being white and yet no one is accommodating them? But they read White Privilege isn’t that enough? No, for anyone who is not like you, just like you, if not in actual color but in belief and demeanor, you are not white enough, so no clearly no. But a gun can solve that. If you fail to kill yourself with it try killing your own. It will work out well. Or not.
Off the Rack Publishing 