It Takes A Village

First, the pain is unimaginable.  I spent 35 years in schools, in a variety of positions.  I was directly responsible for the safety and security of all children, the concept is called loco parentis, for at least 12 of the 18 years I spent as a school administrator.

After Columbine and 9/11 we all had to develop and implement safety plans, practiced lock downs.  I personally challenged several over the years, took firearms off at least two students, confiscated knives, reacted to stabbings, beatings, and bomb threats.

In short, I was like a cop on the beat.

There were several times when I feared for  my life.

And I patrolled, usually alone, with a walki-talkie as my only defense.

I say that as I think about the Principal, who was killed in Connecticut, probably standing in the way of the shooter.  I say that as I think about the children, all under 11, who the killer "wasted" in an apparent delusional rage.

I say that also as I witness this huge country reduced to a village, by modern communications.  Everyone, either by cable T.V., Facebook, Twitter, satellite radio, FM Radios; etc., was bound together as if the murders occurred right next door.

And we must do something to at least make it harder for madmen to get guns.  It is time, to stop this senseless slaughter.

I saw a chart that shows over 400,000 gun involved deaths in the United States from 2003-2007.

The United States lost 350,000 in World War II.  And, I am not counting injuries by shooting, that far exceeds WWII casualties.

We are enduring the losses of WWII every 5 to seven years or so, during peacetime!

And still, the gun lobby prevails.  Still, we allow internet buying of guns and ammunition with little check.

Michigan, in a footnote to these tragedies, the day before the school murders, passed a law that a person could carry a concealed weapon to school!  It awaits the governor's signature!

Absolutely amazing!  With the dead everywhere, with 40 gun deaths a day, this nation refuses to throttle back its appetite for guns and gun violence.

Tell this to the parents of those kindergartners   and 1st graders who had to go to the morgue to identify their babies, who were shot repeatedly at close range as they screamed and cowered behind their desks.

I have always said gun murders are the act of real cowards.  It takes bravery and personal risk to kill someone with a knife or your bare hands.  A coward stands back and pumps bullets into someone, or for that matter an animal.    How is hunting a sport, when you shoot a deer from 300 yards with an automatic weapon?   It is NOT sport, it is not brave, it is cowardly!  Use a bow and arrow to hunt, in fact restrict it to that.

The NRA has not even acknowledge what happened in Connecticut.  They probably won't.

And here in Redding, the redneck capitol of California, we will see more of those damn bumper stickers, "pry my cold dead fingers from my gun" lunacies.

This nation is sick.  What kind of people are we to stand back and watch school children murdered, Principals shot dead as they try to protect them, while we beat our chests and proclaim absolute gun ownership rights for nut cases?

It takes a village to raise a child.  We are not a village anymore.