Thinking about the fate of the future often worries me. Honestly, the best way to describe the condition (and reputation) of our nation right now is with a pretty outdated, but perfectly accurate term:
Hot Mess.
My generation knows this phrase, despite its evolution in meaning over the years. But for the older folks who might be reading and are unfamliar with “hot mess,” here’s a definition, courtesy Urban Dictionary: Continue reading
hile winding down after a Thursday I thought would never end, I caught the initial news reports releasing the name of the individual who’d allegedly gunned down and killed five people working at the Capital Gazette newspaper earlier that day. My curiosity took over and I went looking online for traces of this monster. I did a quick search on Facebook to see if his name came up. Nothing. But Twitter was a different story.
Jarrod W. Ramos’ Twitter account was listed under his name, exactly as it was reported on the news: Jarrod W. Ramos, but the Twitter handle was @EricHartleyFrnd. Continue reading
Also published here at Medium.
It’s not a “mental health” issue. It’s toxic masculinity.
Friday, May 18, 2018, another school shooting happened – this time in Santa Fe, Texas, just three months after the Parkland, FL massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. The death toll at Santa Fe High School in Texas was 10, with 10 others wounded. One of the most compelling moments in the wake of this tragedy was, for me at least, a statement made by this student at the 1:13 mark that was captured during interview:
The interviewer asks Paige Curry, a student at Santa Fe High School, “Was there a part of you that was like, this isn’t real; this would not happen in my school?” Without hesitation, she replies, “no, there wasn’t.” When asked “why so?” Paige simply answers, “its been happening everywhere. I’ve always kind of felt like eventually it was going to happen here, too… so, I don’t know. I wasn’t surprised, I was just scared.”
I wasn’t surprised.
Let that sink in. Continue reading
Feb. 22, 2018
As a proposed solution to the most recent mass shooting with an assault weapon obtained by a high school student, Trump has proposed that our teachers carry guns in school, and also thinks teachers should get a “bit of a bonus” to carry them.
Mr. President. You think arming our teachers with guns is the solution. This is the most asinine argument ever. Have you actually spoken with any public school teachers about this? I don’t have a single teacher friend, ex-military/experienced shooter or not, who thinks this is even remotely close to being a good idea.
Where I live, in my county alone, as of last year there were Continue reading
Originally published at Medium
’all. Please stop debating whether guns kill people, or people kill people. The two are not mutually exclusive. Here’s the reality: People with guns kill people. We can’t just simply separate the two. The fact that this debate is still going on is like banging your head against the wall. Will common sense ever filter into this discussion? Your fellow Americans are grieving in overwhelming proportions of unimaginable pain, which most of us — God willing — may never know. Do we really need to argue semantics and philosophy here? Continue reading
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