Thursday, May 26, 2022

Bobservation: We Don't Care

It’s happened again … and again … and again, who cares?

In the past week we’ve seen a lunatic open fire in a grocery store in a predominantly Black neighborhood, murdering people; then we saw another lunatic shoot up a Taiwanese church in California; and now, more schoolchildren dead, and families destroyed, again, in Texas.

We don‘t care though. We don’t care. There are so many other things to grab our attention … Kim Kardastrophe wore Marilyn’s dress to the Met Gala; Amber Heard and  Johnny Depp, two self-entitled, self-involved celebrities are battling again in court; because there’s something new to stream on Netflix or a new iPhone to stand in line to buy.

We don’t care. We stopped caring ten years ago after Sandy Hook.

Oh, sure, we get pissed and we stomp our feet and we yell, but what else do we do? Do we demand, DEMAND, that out elected officials do something about the ease with which nearly anyone can get a gun? Do we require that gun owners be licensed and trained in the use of firearms? Do we say No to anyone who wants a gun without a background check? Do we even ask the question about requiring gun owners to carry insurance?

You need to be trained and tested and licensed and insured to buy  and operate a car in this country, but all you need to get a gun and carry it wherever you want is a credit card and a trigger finger.

And we still don’t care. We whine and cry and stomp our feet and then turn back to our devices. When will we learn?

Well, learn this: Texas GOP Senator Ted Cruz, who doesn’t think gun control, gun licensing, gun registration, a full ban on assault weapons will stop these mass shootings was paid $442,000.00 from the NRA; that’s a lot of money to keep getting you reelected while children are gunned down.

Louisiana GOP Congressman Steve Scalise has $396,000.00 reasons to not vote for stricter gun laws, thanks to the NRA.

Senator GOP John Cornyn of Texas earned some $340,000.00 while kids in his state are murdered. GOP Senator Lindsey Graham, from South Carolina, pocketed  $284,000.00 from the NRA to look the other way, while GOP Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky took in $247,000.00 in blood money. GOP Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, GOP Congressman Kevin McCarthy of California, GOP Congress man Pete Sessions of Texas, and GOP Senator Steve Daines of Montana, also padded their election coffers with nearly a quarter of a million dollars each from the NRA.

Notice that the politicians raking in the most money from the NRA, and the ones most adamant about having no need for gun control, sensible, responsible gun control, are all Republicans.

Money talks, children die; we don’t care.

And those in the GOP who don’t work in politics and don’t cash NRA checks offer up their own solutions … Maureen O’Connell, a former FBI agent, says schools should invest in “ballistic blankets” and in obscuring windows, to keep shooter at bay. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton thinks teachers should be armed. Not a single word about stopping the flood of guns  into murderers’ hands, just ways to sell more guns.

Don’t stop the shooter; don’t stop the lunatic with the gun.

The hypocrisy of Texas’ GOP Governor Greg Abbott waging a war against face masks in schools during a pandemic, but who cares nothing about keeping guns out of the hands of madmen who shoot schoolchildren isn’t lost on me.

The hypocrisy of GOP and their war against abortion this week, talking about fetal heartbeats, when they don’t care at all about the dead 19 school children, each of whom had … had … a heartbeat isn’t lost on me.

The hypocrisy of the GOP who have traded out their ridiculous “thoughts and prayers” responses of for a new message about “lifting up in prayer” the survivors and the families of those whose children and loved ones were murdered isn’t lost on me.

How about lifting up your fucking voices and demanding this madness stop? How about lifting up your fucking hand and voting Yes to responsible, sane, gun control?

The hypocrisy of the GOP offering condolences to the families of murdered school children at the same time they are saying there’s nothing that can be done isn’t lost on me.

The hypocrisy of the GOP banning books about slavery, books about trans kids, books about racism, books about LGBTQ+ Americans, while allowing anyone to own a gun and carry it wherever they choose and open fire at will isn’t lost on me.

Books are killing students, but by god keep them out of our schools.

The hypocrisy of the GOP saying deaths of schoolchildren, of People of Color, of church goers, movie goers, shoppers should be used to justify the Second Amendment isn’t lost on me.

But again, we don’t care because those on the right think gun control means the government is coming for your guns. Remember they screamed that, while Obama was president, he was coming to take their guns away. And how many guns did Obama confiscate? I’ll wait until you count to “zero.”

I know people who have guns; I know a guy here in Camden who operates a gun club and operates gun shoots about once a month; those men, and women, aren’t shooting up schools and churches and such. Those are the ones who understand the power of guns, how to handle them.

They aren’t fighting background checks and licenses and registrations. Those are the gun nuts, who have twisted the Second Amendment from having a “well-regulated militia” to fight against an attack on this country by a foreign nation, to mean that y’all can have guns and carry them into the Piggly Wiggly, and throw ‘em over your shoulders in Starbucks, and buy as many as you want at guns shows, and purchase as many assault weapons—a gun with just one use: to kill—as they want.

Those  people shouldn’t have guns, and the people collecting money from the NRA to protect their terror group, the ones like Cruz and Rubio and Graham and McCarthy and McConnell, who have the blood of schoolchildren on their hands, should not be allowed in public office again.

Each and everyone in the GOP who stands with and for the NRA is complicit in the murders of schoolchildren and teachers and rabbis and pastors and concertgoers and worshippers.

But we don’t care. And I say that because in the ten years since Sandy Hook we’ve seen thousands of Americans killed by guns and we’ve done nothing.

I say we don’t care because something shiny will come along to catch our eye, or a new TikTok will need a million views, and so we’ll stop and look.

I say that because we get complacent and look the other way and don’t demand that our elected officials stop the killing.

I still say we don’t care. Prove me wrong.

20 comments:

  1. You know I feel the same way...you said it better and in more detail. The legislators who agree are up against those who won't budge. It's forever an impasse. And too many citizens believe that the Dems are the enemy and will vote for the Repigs again and again. Where do we go from here?

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  2. My heart is so broken over this. We need to vote! I know I say it, but we do. And we need to rally others to vote as well and not just assume that someone else will vote out these politicians.

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    1. Anonymous9:47 AM

      We vote. I does no good.

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  3. I'm so with you here.
    I think it is important that people know who is it that's behind lax gun regulation and who is it that opposes any changes: the GOP. They have been paid and bought by the NRA and few people talk about that. People tend to fixate on what the Dems are not doing, but they forget that no matter what the Dems do, the Repugs will always act against the American people, as long as their pockets are lined with blood money.
    Loved the rant. Please keep them coming.

    XOXO

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  4. So sad. And I hope to God that the politicians get something
    done! Because of this - here they announced that all doors
    going into schools will be locked and you will have to call
    to get permission to come in the building.
    xoxo

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  5. Excellent rant, Bob - very well said. Unfortunately, I live in Texas, and though I have always voted the Democratic ticket, it has long since become an exercise in futility. The Republican cult has entrenched itself in the halls of power here, and are working night and day to extend their domination over every statehouse and Congress too.

    As you mentioned, you'd think God-fearing people who *care* so much about unborn embryos would be shocked into righteous anger, and action, at the deaths of live schoolchildren. But no, nothing shakes their arrogance and ignorance, nothing stings their consciences, nothing but a lust for power and money moves their stony, Bible-believing hearts.

    This perversion of religion and politics is even more sickening than the shootings, in my view. I am ashamed to be a Texan, with the so-called leaders we have.

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  6. Amen, and amen, and amen. Our power structure has been poisoned by money, and the NRA is just one very prominent example. In addition to better gun control laws, we need election finance reform and many, many other changes.

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  7. I've been saying ever since Sandy Hook, the moment we, as a nation, decided that guns were more important than kids the debate was over.

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  8. In March 1996 a lunatic in Dunblane, Scotland shot dead a load of school kids. Within 18 months new legislation was in place in the UK. It severely limited the ownership and use of guns. Sadly that kind of legislation, even if passed, won't change things in America. Too many people own too many guns. I understand that 63% of NRA members believe that checks on gun owners are needed. The board of the NRA does not. Clearly they have never lost anyone close to them. The reactions of the Repugnant party are unbelievable - children are dead, far too many children are dead, as the result of their refusal to act.

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  9. I dunno, maybe if guns start being used to abort fetuses, they will be outlawed. Just a thought. Do I need to say sarcasm?

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  10. Anonymous1:10 PM

    Would like to know the source of info for the dollar amounts from the NRA. Sources seem to vary depending on factors such as time frame/year or lifetime totals,etc.

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    1. https://www.axios.com/2022/05/25/ted-cruz-lawmakers-money-gun-rights-groups

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  11. Ted Cruz walked away from an interview recently, he and the NRA are comurderers

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  12. You aren't wrong. You're 100% right. This country is sick, sick, sick.

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  13. I adore you. But then you knew that. Hear ya sister. But what really gets me is the part of your post about the things the public and news stations find even more news worthy over news items we SHOULD be focusing on. Maybe politicians need to be hounded from every angle and corner morning, noon, and night, and in their dreams till this and other issues sing the fuck in.

    Jimmy Kimmel gave a moving monologue last night on the Tonight Show. I don't normally watch but happen to catch it flipping to PBS.

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  14. I Adore you too, well said... I actually like the Idea you have of mandatory Insurance for Gun Owners so that financial Liability of any harm they cause has to be shouldered. Insurance Carriers would then mandate what they would require before Insuring an Individual and make it so that if you don't purchase the Insurance first, you don't get to purchase the Gun at all and a Warrant would be issued for any lapse in coverage. Well, I know none of this will ever happen and that those that squeal loudest about the Unborn being protected could give Two shits about the Born who are being Murdered... their "Thoughts and Prayers", well, even IF they have any they actually do, they would be too inconvenienced to do more and take Action. None of us needs their Thoughts or hasty little Prayers they allegedly offer up... we need Gun Reform in the worst way, the rest of the World cannot Believe how Gun obsessed America is. And NO Politician should be able to accept Blood Money from the likes of the NRA... total conflict of Interest.

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  15. The truth is we are selfish and self-centered, and our attention wanes more than that of an autistic child. Is it unrealistic to think we can change this? No, but it's going to take a lot of work. You'll notice that the GOP has already pushed those deaths to the back burner. They want to talk about the economy and inflation because that hurts the Democrats. To succeed we need to push the things that hurt them the most down their damn throats, so they begin to choke on the truth.

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  16. Yes. There isn't much more any of us could add to your rant because we're all feeling it. The rage and anger that is roiling up within me over the fact that real legislation is being watered down and then held up by 50 fucking REPUBLICAN Senators who would rather accept money from the NRA than protect the lives of their constituents. Someone mentioned it earlier that we were doomed after Sandy Hook when nothing was done except "thoughts and prayers" to protect our children. I am so fucking angry and so fucking tired!

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  17. Hear Hear x 1000, from Australia

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  18. Vote them out. It's this country. There is something systemically wrong with us.

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