This year I spend a lot of my time in a 5th grade classroom with 21 kids, so sweet, and kind to each other, and to the old guy in their midst. Honestly, the nicest bunch I've been with in 20 years of teaching. I'm always smiling, truly, as I know my time in education is drawing to a close and some of these kids will surely be around when the 22nd century arrives, and it's a joy to hear their incredibly perceptive thoughts, and take in their bright eyes and broad smiles. Does this grinch's heart good!
At times in class I've thought of Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, CT: the horror, and the families who continue to live with it, and the first responders who surely still have nightmares. And I think of the intransigent gun rights fanatics, and the thoughts and prayers slime, and the repellent politicians among them, and the profiting gun manufacturers and their well-heeled lobbyists.
What to do? I imagine we can nibble around the edges and possibly, possibly get universal background checks, waiting periods, red flag warnings, and the banning of high-capacity magazines, maybe. Still, those 20 million or so AR-15s are out there, coveted in almost religious ways, and they will most likely always be there. But we have to do what we can do. It's been discussed here that America needs to see the grisly aftermath of a mass shooting, and I see the merit to that argument. Sure, many will turn away, but many may well stare at the carnage, and bawl their eyes out, and be moved to act, to vote differently than they otherwise would have.
In the meantime, these acts of mass slaughter will continue, and you just hope that your loved ones aren't the ones being offered thoughts and prayers. But someone's loved ones are guaranteed to be decimated beyond recognition, and therefore the recipients of those absolutely empty, useless tidings. And Monday, and every day thereafter, I'll try to remain vigilant, my little contribution to the cause, because the kids truly are precious little people who deserve better from this twisted society.
Peter T.
