I'm tired of this

I started this little diary in July of 2006. It's a nice little outlet for me to rant.

However.....

Since that time, there have been:

• 190 school shootings in the US
• 243 students killed
• 343 students injured

The news yesterday from Santa Fe, Texas that 10 people had been killed at a high school seemed to overshadow the news that there was another shooting just south of Atlanta later that night in which one person was killed and another was injured after a graduation ceremony. 

I'm trying my hardest not to become numb to news of a school shooting. But it's very hard. I would imagine most are like me. We pay attention and we shake our heads in disgust. But we only seem to give our attention to the ones that happen when there are multiple fatalities. So my condolences to the families of those who were killed in Jonesboro, GA, simply because "only one person lost their life". 

I read a very poignant opinion recently (after another school shooting; God help me, I can't remember which one) that summed it up for me. Everyone wants to find a solution for this madness. However, most of the solutions offered up by liberal-minded people involve preventing a catastrophe from happening. Most solutions offered up by conservative-mined people involve minimizing the damage after the fact. I chewed on that for awhile and it's relevant. Most liberals would rather take away the option of having the ability to slay dozens of people in 30 seconds. Conservative approaches (more armed officers at school, equipping the teachers with guns) want to take out the shooter after it starts so they can prevent the shooter from killing even more people. That means someone still dies. 

My wife is a teacher and I still have a daughter in high school. I never imagined there would be a time when I thought I would say to myself, "Jeez, I hope they both finish so they can get out into the real world and be safer than they are at school." But that's the thought I have every day. How is it that my oldest daughter, who lives in the second largest city in the US, seems to be safer than someone who is in school seven hours a day? 

All this to say, I don't have all the answers. But thoughts and prayers are not, and never really have been, a part of the solution. But that's what we get. 

And I'm tired of it. 

Safe Spaces? Liberals didn't invent them.

I typed this over a year ago and forgot to publish. It still holds true.

Periodically, I hear conservatives talk about how ridiculous "safe spaces" are. You know safe spaces, right? It's those places we liberals had to escape to because Donald Trump somehow won the highest political office in the land, and we needed a place to cry. There were even stories about colleges shutting down for the day and offering counseling. Turns out, some of that was little exaggerated, but the point remained - these lefties just can't handle the real world.

What I find most interesting is that safe spaces weren't really first used by those who are more tolerant of others' cultures. The oldest and most widely known safe space was created by a group who just couldn't stand that other people were acquiring basic human rights - the KKK.

At some point a long time ago, a bunch of butt-hurt white people got together and were disturbed that black citizens (I use that word loosely, based on what they were actually allowed to do back then) had the gall to assimilate themselves into American society. They're trying to take our jobs, our homes, OUR WOMEN! We need to assemble a group of just us whiteys where we can't be bothered by a group of people who are barely allowed to cross the street without being lynched. I mean, they don't have anything, so it's important that we keep them down. So let's make a pact. We need to keep America whhyyyyyyte.

Lunch counters, public transportation, voting booths, schools. You name it. The Klan didn't want those people anywhere. And before you say that was a long time ago, A) that's my point and, B) Country Clubs were still under fire as late as the 1990's for not allowing black members.

What were they doing? They created safe spaces LONG before decent people wept at the thought of a man who bragged about forcing himself on women was elected to lead this country.