Ranting Rex

I’m not sure how I can get any clearer than that. Arming teachers is the single dumbest idea a Republican has thought up since thinking that women can’t get pregnant if they’re raped. Yes…it is THAT stupid. It’s not that the Right couldn’t come up with a more retarded idea. I’m sure they could. I only say that because just when I think they are as stupid as they can be, they come up with another idea that is more ridiculous than the last. They’re so good at it. But this time their stupidity will be fatal. Notice I didn’t say “could.” That’s because if we let them do this, it WILL be fatal.

Greg Lucas, former NRA instructor, and now Arizona State Representative thinks that having armed teachers is a good plan. This is another example of the Right’s knee-jerk reaction to things. They really are like four year olds, not walking their ideas through to the logical end. They get to something that meets their already twisted ideologies and figure “well…that sounds like it fits” and then no amount of logic will ever seep-in.

So since I seem to have to hand-hold everyone back to reality, I will give you the following scenarios that would happen if this law was ever passed:

Scenario One: Abuse of Power

You have a teacher that has gone through the training, signed whatever waiver they’re given, and then is handed a nice snub-nosed .38 to keep on their person, or maybe locked in a box in the classroom. Now, this guy, let’s call him Coach has an inflated ego, and a bad attitude toward children. He’s been working in the high school for five to ten years, and he’s wondering where his life has gone. However, he likes the power he has over kids, and gets summers off. One day a student rubs him the wrong way in health class, talking to the cheerleader in the next row. It pisses the guy off, so instead of telling Billy to take his seat for the umpteenth time, he says “Sit your ass down, or I’ll use that new .38 they gave me and make you sit down!” So now…the school has a lawsuit because some idiot didn’t pay attention in training class. And this is the BEST you can hope for that will happen, that just some moron abuses his authority.

Scenario Two: Student Thief

Let’s say that the firearm is kept in a purse, or maybe locked in a desk. The students know it is there. It might even be in a lockbox, and the teacher has the key…maybe it’s a combination lock…either way, it is present where you can get to it. Unless it’s a full-size gun safe weighing hundreds of pounds, then it can be easily carried off. So what happens is that one day, the teacher is out of the classroom, having lunch, needing to pee, or whatever the reason. The juvenile delinquent knows where the gun happens to be. So…they take their opportunity and remove the firearm, safe, whatever with the help of their other idiotic friends (we will call the future Republicans). So now the firearm is in the hands of the people they are trying to protect themselves from. Sure…you can have an investigation, but by the time you figure out who has the firearm…if you figure it out, it’s too late. The thing has either been sold 12 times, or it has been used on fellow students. By the way…this is a bad thing.

Scenario Three: Overpowered Teacher

Imagine if you will the close to retirement female teacher. She is 64 years old, and not exactly the picture of health. However, she’s a very good teacher, and swings discipline in her class like a club. Now…you have Billy again. He’s an ass. And he decides that he’s going to threaten said teacher. So…since he knows she’s armed he gets as close as he can to her. She’s old so she’s not that fast. By the time she pulls the gun, Billy is on her. He rips it out of her hand and then starts firing at her and the rest of the class. Now you have another 26 people dead. This by the way is the worse-case scenario. This is what WILL happen if you arm teachers. This is why it’s a bad idea!

The above are only a few of the nightmares that I can come up with at the top of my head. I’m sure there are hundreds more. Arming teachers is a stupid idea. It’s like thinking if you poor gasoline on a fire it will go out. It’s dumb, and it shouldn’t be considered. In fact, the person who came up with the idea, shouldn’t be allowed to ever come up with any ideas on their own ever again…ever.  Mental health should be the focus to prevent violence, not insanity. 

The first political salvo was lobbed from the far-Right Friday by Wayne LaPierre, Vice President of the NRA. He couched it as a response to the Left using this tragedy to their own political ends, of course. I’ve always admired the Right’s ability to point fingers at others for their own gross and distasteful deeds. No one told them when they were three that when they point a finger at someone, they have three pointing back at them. In reality, up to that point, no one, and I mean, no one, in the political spectrum had mentioned changes in the second Amendment. The NRA is like a school yard bully. They punch a kid in the face and then blame the kid for just being in the wrong place when they lifted their hands to stretch. The problem is that this time, the bully used a .233 assault rifle and the kids were only six years old.

Of course his first action was to voice his complete regret and dismay at the terrible actions of a single individual. Then his next was to take a long winded approach to saying that guns don’t kill people, people kill people. Well no shit, Sherlock! The problem is that if you didn’t allow the crazy people to have access to guns in the first place then these types of things wouldn’t happen. Sure…he could have killed a child with a butter knife. The problem is that had he showed up with a crazed look and a tub of margarine, someone would have been able to stop him.

I’ve already heard the Right tout for years that the lack of religion (Christian religion) in schools is the core problem for these tragedies. Joe Lieberman actually thinks the cause is rap music and video games. He’s even asked Congress to investigate. These are nice theories, like Santa, but I believe that thinking video games are the cause for such violence is only slightly less crazy than thinking that religion has the corner stone on morality. To make things even crazier, we now have the NRA telling us we need to put armed guards on staff at schools around the nation. Yep…if prisons have guns…why not kindergarden?

Now, I get the logic he’s using. I really do. If the President of the United States has armed Guards, then why not our most precious resource…children. The problem is, that this is not exactly the lesson I want to teach my children. I don’t want them to think that they need armed security each time they leave the house. They’ll start asking for a bullet proof stretch and a chauffeur! Seriously, if it was up to the NRA, our school yards would be barbed wired, land mined, and surrounded by SWAT teams. I mean…how else are our children expected to be free? Seriously…have these guys completely gone off the reservation? Apparently…yes.

The President is as much a prisoner of his office as he is an occupant. Just ask him. Ask any of them. President Bill Clinton once said that the White House was “The crown jewel of the Federal Penatentuary System.” Do we really want kids to think that school is such a horrible place that they have to hire thugs to keep them in?

The only logical thing this guy said was that more needed to be done around mental health in this country. True. I couldn’t agree more. The problem is…how can we do anything for mental health when the party on the Right thinks that National Health Care is tantamount to Stalinism? I don’t understand these people. I really don’t. They live in a fantasy land, complete with fairies and goblins. They’re children. Having a conversation with them is like talking to a three year old. They lack the ability for a constant train of thought:

• Right “What do you mean I can’t own a gun that is only intended to kill people?”

• Left “Why do you need a gun that is only intended for the killing of people?”

• Right “Guns don’t kill people, people kill people.”

• Left “ Then why do you need a gun that was only invented to kill people?”

• Right “Jesus is Lord!”

I agree that only taking the guns off the street is not the answer. However, it is a start. You have to ask yourself why there were 37,000 gun deaths this year in the United States, and in Great Britain there were only 50. You can hunt all you want in Great Britain too. Well…you can’t shoot your friend in the face like here, but you can hunt. You can also buy all the hunting equipment and firearms you desire. However, you can’t buy an assault rifle.

Most of the politicians and pundits have focused on mental health issues over the last week when discussing the tragedy. I really think this is by far the best idea. The best way to do that is to have a national health care program. I think most reasonable people can agree that Mental Health treatment is important to the safety of this country. I think everyone will benefit dearly with providing access to increased mental health. In fact, I think we should start with the Republican Party because they have lost their minds!

It has been almost a year since I met my wife.  Ok…we actually met in high school over 33 years ago, but she doesn’t remember.  In her defense, I really wasn’t that memorable.  Sure, we went to the same high school, grew up in the same neighborhood, and have many of the same friends, but our childhood experiences were drastically different.  She was a scholastic dynamo, driven to become an attorney, graduating from one of the top law schools in the country.  I just looked up in the dictionary to see how to spell “scholastic.”

When we met she was recently divorced after 29 years of marriage.  I had never been married, being a bachelor for 47 years.  After high school she moved to Las Vegas, attended law school and raised a family of three boys, who gave her five grandbabies.  I once owned a house plant.      

Even with our differences, however, it works.  She thinks I’m funny, kind, and witty, and I think it’s a good idea to support her illusion.  What I get from her far outweighs anything I can give to her.  She supports me in everything I do even letting me write ridiculous articles about the random thoughts that run through my aging and balding head.  I know that I’m no prize.  The fact that she loves me makes her even more precious.

If you had asked me a year ago, where I would be this year, I would have given some flippant answer.  However, I know that wherever I would have been, I would have been alone.  I was always going somewhere for the holidays, usually Vail to ski with the pagans on Christmas.  Yes, it would be fun, and yes, it would be an adventure.  However, having an adventure alone isn’t very adventurous.  In fact, it’s boring.  Let’s face it; Aron Ralston’s story would have been a lot more interesting had he had a witness.

My wife is my greatest fan, and I hers.  She provides me with the confidence to face each day even when I want to crawl into myself.  There isn’t a moment throughout my day where I don’t think of her and smile, sometimes with tears in my eyes because the love I have for her has no other way to come out.  I’m often confused about what she sees in me.  However, I have sense enough not to ask too many questions. 

Almost from the time we met we just spend the first few minutes of each day talking.  Almost within seconds we are laughing.  She is my favorite person.  In a very short time she has become the center of my world, and my reason for waking up.  Also, over anyone else I value her opinion.  If what I write is good, she tells me.  If it sucks, she tells me, and it’s usually with words like “sucks.”  As a writer there nothing, and I mean nothing, more important to your work than an honest opinion.  She doesn’t pull punches, and for that I am grateful. 

It has been almost a year since we got together, and I am looking forward to many, many more.  I can’t imagine spending my life with anyone other than her.  She is the first thing I think about when I wake, and the last before I sleep.  She is also the first person whom I have never had to question whether they love me.  And in the end, this is why we are together.  No matter what our differences, no matter what our challenges, we know, beyond a doubt, that we love each other.  And for that, I will always be hers.

I love you baby,

Me.

There was another shooting today, this time at a K-4th grade school in Connecticut.  Right now all we know is that 18 children under the age of 9 and several adults were killed.  We don’t know the reason why, and we don’t know the extent of the damage.  All we know is that children and parents are terrified, and confused. 

In the days to come, the talking heads will crawl out of the woodwork like the cockroaches they are and politicize these events for their own sick and twisted agendas.  However, right now we just need to focus on the survivors and make sure they are safe and well cared for. 

If you try to make sense of something like this you will just be wasting your time.  There isn’t any sense to be made.  If you have children, go home and hug them.  Make them feel safe.  That’s the best you can do for them.

Rex