A little while ago I read a diary by Leslie Salzillo www.dailykos.com/... containing parts of an interview Anderson Cooper conducted with an amazing teenager that survived the Parkland school murders. Cameron Kasky is the kind of kid that gives me hope for the future. He’s not the only student at that school that’s called out the GOP’s bullshit of offering “thoughts and prayers” as a way of avoiding even talking about gun control. Kasky however takes it a step further and also calls them out of their use of “mental health” as a smokescreen.
That’s the GOP hobby horse right now — better mental health screening, as if actual legislation to prevent people determined to be mentally ill from buying guns to actually become law they’d ever actually vote for. After all, it was only a year ago the GOP Congress passed a law repealing an Obama regulation that did the very thing the GOP now claims will solve everything! As Rachel Maddow noted it was the first piece of actual legislation tRump signed, although he did so in private. No little ceremony so he could hold up the thing up with his signature like a four year old displaying a crayon drawing for this one! Also, while the White House photographer confirms the signing was photographed they still refuse to release the picture. By law they can’t destroy it as it has to become part of the Presidential Archives but I’m sure they are trying to figure out how to accidently on purpose erase all evidence of the thing!
But I digress. We have a group of students calling out the GOP for years of refusal to deal with the problem of gun violence. Refusals of “it’s not the right time to talk about this,” or bleating about the second amendment and anything else they can come up with to avoid even minimal action on gun control. And all that time we’ve seen, and more importantly right now the kids speaking out this week have seen the ever expanding list of schools (that now includes theirs) that have experienced the horror of some asshole shooting and killing people. With an assault weapon that was legally purchased. And lest we forget, these school shootings are carried out by white folks. That’s one of those “inconvenient” characteristics in addition to the use of military style assault weapons the GOP does all it can to get people to overlook.
Anyway we have a series of students, not parents but students speaking out and speaking out strongly against the GOP’s criminal negligence in dealing with the problem of too many guns and the worst kind of guns being so easily obtained. Calling for gun control. And even calling out the GOP for their bullshit smokescreens like “with better mental health screening we can control this problem — but first let me offer thoughts and prayers.” Some of these kids (and their parents) are flat out telling them to shove their “thoughts and prayers” and to actually do something. Like passing a new assault weapons ban for starters.
We have kids leading the charge. Everyone here wants to help them. So let’s hit the GOP where they claim to live, in their freaking bible. The just love to wear their “Christianity” on their sleeve, although they seem to like the Old Testament teachings more than what Jesus taught in the New Testament. None of that helping the poor, or “suffer the little children unto me” nonsense for the modern GOP! No sir. So, since they love the Old Testament let’s keep hammering with them with the words of these kids from Parkland, AND a well known bit from Isaiah I’m sure every “Christian” in the GOP can cite chapter and verse:
“And a child shall lead them.”
Force these assholes, and do it on camera to think about that verse, and ask why pleasing the NRA is more important than what scripture teaches them. Force them to fumble through bullshit that basically says “screw those kids — I’m afraid of the NRA.”
How about that for a strategy?