Video from CNN via YouTube
"Love Wins!"
On a Facebook page where the mother of Ana Marquez-Greene, a Sandy Hook victim, pays tribute to her "spunky" 6-year old who is no longer here, she writes the statement above, "Love Wins!" I cannot fathom the depth of her pain, as a mother, I don't know how I would even be able to write again if my daughter had been taken from me in such a devastating manner. But, I also cannot go on any further today holding in all of this anger and frustration I have over the thoughtless and insensitive statements by Wayne LaPierre, Executive Director of the NRA late this morning, a little more than an hour after the nation shared in a moment of silence on this national day of mourning for the 26 in that school last week. As I sit here feeling my blood boil beneath my skin, I take a deep breath and repeat that mantra, "Love Wins!"
"Love Wins!"
"Love Wins!"
"Love Wins!"
Mr. LaPierre, you are an indignant, insensitive, petulant, inglorious being. You shame this country and all we are supposed to stand for. Your and your positions are beyond disappointing! YOU, no one else, took a very tragic situation and turned it into an infomercial for the NRA's next "great endeavor." You can't even begin to imagine what I would like to call you (hint: Jay-Z said he would no longer use that word), but I can't and I won't: 1) because we are talking about the murder of children...babies; 2) you aren't worth the energy it would take to form my lips to even say the words!
So I will say this and and bid you a good day:
A military state is not what I envision for my child. "Love Wins!" in our schools! My mother has been teaching for 40 years, she's had some of the most difficult students you could imagine during periods of terrible violence in our city, but "Love Wins!" when it comes to stopping "bad guys with guns." If we put more of ourselves as a community that cares about all children, no matter how awkward we think they are into loving them all, then maybe we will see fewer Adam Lanza's in this world. Teachers are trained to educated, not to form an educational militia. Your comments were "pornographic" and have no place in the discourse of this discussion or the solutions, and ultimately the prevention of another Sandy Hook! For years, you all have won this debate, but recognize this is different! These were babies in a place where they should have been safe, where that particular person had no documented reason for even being in the vicinity of the school. You will NOT win this one with ugly rhetoric. Not this one. Not this time. You don't win.
"Love Wins!"
And I suggest you find some!
Good response from the NRA. Armed guards for our children. Our children deserve protection. Some Texas schools are already doing it. Israel schools are doing. Protection of our children should be Paramount. My tax dollars spent on guards protecting our children instead of sending it to rebels in other countries sounds like a good idea to me.
ReplyDeleteI went to public schools in CT, all New Haven schools have police officers. If you get into a fight, they don't send you to the principal, they arrest you. In 1996, I was working at a school and witnessed a 7 year old dragged off in handcuffs. You really need to understand CT dynamics. I was in school when 3 separate shootings took place, including a drive by that sprayed bullets. They saw the police cars, and they didn't care. For years people thought it was "gang-related," it wasn't, it was over a girl. I was looking out the window when it occurred, I was 15. Another time a student opened fire in a police supervised cafeteria. The student being shot at used a teacher as a shield. The third time some kid was climbing up the bleachers for an assembly we had and the gun fell out from his clothes shooting him in the foot. My point is this: A teacher was murdered in that school by a kid in 1978, as a result police were stationed at every school in the city that year and remain. Those shootings occured in the 1990's. There have been plenty of shootings in CT schools, arming people isn't what needs to be done. What we need here is for someone to figure out why the state hasn't been more aggressive in trying to solve this. Arming teachers isn't the answer, it is a bandage. Without getting to the root of this social disease of violence, we will keep putting bandages on it to alleviate the immediate pain of the initial cut, but it will never heal; it is far too deep.
ReplyDelete*Chris Dodd brought a delegation of CT kids from across the state to testify before a Congressional Committee about the gun violence going on here; this was in the 1990's. A proposal was made and DC did not act on it. No one could have stopped this because the plan was in motion and no one knew. A .9mm, standard issue is no competition for an AR-15 assault rifle. In the time it takes to fire one bullet from the .9mm, an AR-15 can unload at least 10. Unless the person firing is a sharp shooter, they will take a bullet before shooting one. CT law actually does allow for concealed weapons in public places, including schools, provided the person carrying has a permit. And again, this still happened. All the necessary safety components are in place her across the state, our mayors share ideas and practices, the only part of this that opens the door is the lack of a ban on assault rifles. LaPierre didn't do his homework. Because if he had, he would know that what he was suggesting we already being implemented and still the shootings in our schools occur. We have whole neighborhoods where there are police substations, the shooting stll occurs. There are no easy answers, as the mother of a victim said, "the issues are complex." Without knowing why he chose a school or walked past the first class and opened fire on the next one killing all but one child, we won't know how to prevent that type of person from doing this elsewhere.
*Please excuse my typos. It is 6:40 am and I have yet to sleep.
ReplyDelete