The faces-the loss....in America

 

        We cry. We rage. Again our hearts are broken. It is an aberration. It is an American act.

      As we look at photos of each of the victims we are crushed by the loss of innocence, the sweet childhood, the promise, the hope of young lives, the murdered love of family. We are killing America. 

    We destroy our truth, we bury our aspirational promise of the Constitution to be a more perfect union, to establish justice, to insure domestic tranquility. We do not secure the blessings of liberty for ourselves and posterity. We kill them. We put money and political power over the sweet faces and the future of our children in America.

    Here a teen boy can not buy a beer, but he can buy assault weapons. Why shouldn't 21 years be the mandatory minimum for a gun purchase? Why? Because Republicans are owned by and work for the gun makers. Because Republicans are now afraid to cross the gun crazy nation they and the NRA created during decades of clever deception about the 2nd Amendment.  Because Republicans, not even 10 of them, will vote to make that a law. They are American cowards.

    President Biden is limited in what he can. Politics is why. Were it his to act unilaterally, gun safety laws would change. Democrats, who have been pushing gun laws since the murder of innocents in Newtown, are now doubling down on efforts to find ways to bring 10 Republicans into support of the change that 76% of the American people want. 

    Now parents, grand parents, and caregivers worry about their loved ones. They and teachers and counselors have the  task of explaining to their children or wards that American children, just like them, may be killed in their school, or at the super market, or movie theatre, or church by an assault weapon because there are so many guns and they are so easy to buy, in America. 

    Gun manufactures bought the NRA and turned it into the money pipeline for Senators and Representatives who have worked for decades to loosen gun laws. Fewer regulations mean more sales. Now that right wing looney authoritarians control the Republican party there is a population of gun owning folks, confused about the 2nd Amendment, who are willing to fight to keep their assault weapons. They are also Americans.

    Background checks, age requirements, tighter security on sales and transactions does not mean the Federal government is "coming after your weapon(s)." But a lot of people have been misled and manipulated by the NRA and Republicans into thinking that, in America.

    No one can deny there is an epidemic of mass killings in one nation on this planet. There have been many moments like the pain, grief, shock, loss and hurt we now endure. It is an American ritual.

    Can enough Republicans find a sense of virtue, decency, and goodness, to honor at least 10 of the dead children? Can the two Democrat problem weasels stay with their party for once and can the Senate finally give the American people what they want in gun laws? Now, that would be an American victory.

    Love the children. Keep them safe.

    See you down the trail.

     

Refresh

       The 9 to almost 10 inches of rain in the "March Miracle" has saved the central California coast from drought and has prompted bud break at some of our wineries.

      We first heard about Miracle March or March Miracles when we arrived 11 years ago and this is the second time a good March dosing of rain came when needed. The green season is a spirit lifter.

the refreshing generation

     It is almost universal amongst conscientious, caring and intelligent people-they find inspiration and hope in generation Z, the generation of mass slaughter. Kids 18 and under have lived their life in an age with yearly mass slaughter and the need for school shooter drills.

      They are different from their elder millennials, and Gen Xers. Some have compared them to early boomers, but there are significant differences. 

     Boomers came of age at a time of hope and a growing middle class. Boomer politics were widely focused; civil rights, anti war, but the largest rumble was in cultural change. Music, fashion, personal appearance, leisure, recreational drug use, values, self expression, and sexual behavior were all part of the "counter cultural" ethos. Some were in deep, some were merely being fashionable and others were mere posers. That's not like the Z's.

       Their single focus is staying alive in school, by forcing an errant government to do something about assault weapons, better gun licensing practices, better mental health services and hemming in the evil influence of the gun maker's sales arm, the NRA. They are laser focused, articulate, skilled organizers and determined. Some of them will vote soon.

Many of them will vote in 2020. Times are changing and that offers hope.

unless you are one of them

        Evidence of how divided this nation is sometimes shows up in ways that make you want to laugh, except for the pitiful and dreadful nature of it.

        Rick Santorum maybe the poster boy for the ignoramus culture. He criticized the student march movement saying they should spend that time and money learning CPR so they could save lives after the next shooting.

        Yes, there really are people who took exception to the March for our Lives movement. There is a rip in our social fabric and those believe in the deep state, or who find something sinister about students organizing to save their lives are, take your choice: dunces, boneheads, dimwits, nitwits, dumbbells, kooks, nincompoops or fools. 

         These are people who embody the idea their opinion is more valuable than fact. They are not inclined to work toward a common center or an acceptable compromise because they are fools, but you know they have a right to vote as well.

         Even after everything we have seen of this administration there are still some 40% of US voters who approve. This is a nation divided in many ways, but largely between those who believe in a better future or those who cling to the past, those willing to learn or those who already know all they need to know, those with knowledge or those with attitudes. 

         But when the kids who have grown up in a time of mass slaughter become voters, watch a seismic change occur. Talk about refreshing...

the national fund raiser

      I think we saw a glimpse of an idea that could make tons of money for the US treasury or an appropriate relief effort, maybe Puerto Rico. 

       Former Vice President Biden and the trump cretin did a little trash talking at each other. Joe said if he had known bully boy donnie the predator back in the day he would have taken him out back. Well, don't you imagine people would pay to see Joe and the liar go a couple of rounds in a boxing ring. Actually I doubt if trump could last even one round, the lard bucket coward that he is. I know it's off the boards weird but these are weird times and trump has big time wrestling experience. 

       Now that would be must see, TV.

     See you down the trail.  

THEY WILL BE A FORCE

   From California to Washington DC a generational force spoke with a clear, concise and powerful voice. People under 18, who have lived their lives in an age of mass slaughter and school shooter drills say enough! No more BS. They have their own targets, the NRA and Congressman who are on the NRA payroll.

     I have been blown away by the articulate and reasoned voice of this generation, who we have seen and heard since Parkland. 
     Local media said some 7,000 people were expected at the march and rally in San Luis Obispo, a city of 49 thousand. 
     

        The signs say it all.

    The local students were stunning in their candor, power, eloquence and force.

     I've covered protests and rallies since the 1960's and I've rarely been as impressed as I was today.  These kids give us hope.

    See you down the trail.