This post is in frustrated response to the murderous killing spree that took place Monday in a K-6 private elementary school about 7 miles from my home. It happened in the school connected to the church where my daughter's independent vocal choir regularly sings. See details at NPR.
A conversation the next day with my dear friend Rocky Alvey brought up this question, which has been bugging me since. I share it here:
Why is no one calling for a nationwide parent/teacher strike against all school systems? Parents should not have to drop their children off five days a week fearing that they will not survive the day. Nor should teachers or school staff have to go to work daily with the same fears.
Think about it. Someone has to. And I must admit that I am too old to pursue this. Step up. In any way you can.
Strike end conditions include but are not limited to total ban of automatic weapons by federal, local, and state legislatures and the immediate recall of all such weapons with state-funded compensation for their cost. Send the NRA and their puppet politicians back to the woods with a properly thought out, funded, and implemented online education strategy with true online teacher training, much more than the couple zoom sessions and a "good luck" that the Covid crisis generated, along with commensurate losses in learning. Power/support the strike with a shared set of curriculum and other resources in small homeschool groups utilizing itinerate teachers who, along with their charges, also don't ever again need to fear if they will survive the day.
I wrote this yesterday and if you can navigate the non-scanning lines with care, come up with your own melody and share it with me. Or read it aloud like a poem. A song to consider:
Because They Could
by Scott Merrick
(soto voce introduction:)
You were so profoundly broken
in ways that went unspoken
that you kept it from your family
until you didn't.
(forcefully:)
Emilie, Hallie, William:
Audrey, why'd you have to kill them?
I'm writing this not because I want to
but because I have to
I didn't know you.
No one did.
Get off your lazy ass
and to the polls
Send the NRA
back to the woods
vote them out of office
get their guilty hands out of our lives
the shooter killed those kids
because they could.
And it's your fault
And it's my fault
They couldn't use those guns
if those guns could not be bought
And it's their fault
and it's our fault
They couldn't fire those guns
if those guns could not be bought.
I'm crying now
for those three children
and their families
and the others that you killed,
the hearts your bullets stopped
forever and the cops
who you forced to take your life
with your last free will
Emilie, Hallie, William:
Why'd you have to kill them?
I'm writing this not because I want to
but because I have to
I didn't know you.
No one did.
Get off your lazy ass
and to the polls
Send those puppet politicians
back to the woods
vote them out of office
get their guilty hands out of our lives
the shooter killed those kids
because they could.
And it's your fault
And it's my fault
They couldn't use those guns
if those guns could not be bought
And it's their fault
and it's our fault
They couldn't fire those guns
if those guns could not be bought.
They couldn't fire those guns
if those guns could not be bought.
They couldn't fire those guns
if those guns could not be bought.
Raw Links:
https://momsdemandaction.org/resources/
https://www.alternet.org/tennessee-senator-prayers-nashville-victims/
Republican Senators Who Receive Funding From the NRA
- Mitt Romney (Utah) $13,647,676
- Richard Burr (North Carolina) $6,987,380
- Roy Blunt (Missouri) $4,555,722
- Thom Tillis (North Carolina) $4,421,333
- Marco Rubio (Florida) $3,303,355
- Joni Ernst (Iowa) $3,124,773
- Rob Portman (Ohio) $3,063,327
- Todd C. Young (Indiana) $2,897,582
- Bill Cassidy (Louisiana) $2,867,074
- Tom Cotton (Arkansas) $1,968,714
- Pat Toomey (Pennsylvania) $1,475,448
- Josh Hawley (Missouri) $1,391,548
- Marsha Blackburn (Tennessee) $1,306,130
- Ron Johnson (Wisconsin) $1,269,486
- Mitch McConnell (Kentucky) $1,267,139
- Mike Braun (Indiana) $1,249,967
- John Thune (South Dakota) $638,942
- Shelley Moore Capito (West Virginia) $341,738
- Richard Shelby (Alabama) $258,514
- Chuck Grassley (Iowa) $226,007
- John Neely Kennedy (Louisiana) $215,788
- Ted Cruz (Texas) $176,274
- Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) $146,262
- Steve Daines (Montana) $123,711
- Cindy Hyde-Smith (Mississippi) $109,547
- Roger Wicker (Mississippi) $106,680
- Rand Paul (Kentucky) $104,456
- Mike Rounds (South Dakota) $95,049
- John Boozman (Arkansas) $82,352
- John Cornyn (Texas) $78,945
- Ben Sasse (Nebraska) $68,623
- Jim Inhofe (Oklahoma) $66,758
- Lindsey Graham (South Carolina) $55,961
- Mike Crapo (Idaho) $55,039
- Jerry Moran (Kansas) $34,718
- John Barrasso (Wyoming) $26,989
- John Hoeven (North Dakota) $22,050
- Susan Collins (Maine) $19,638
- James Lankford (Oklahoma) $18,955
- Jim Risch (Idaho) $18,850
- Tim Scott (South Carolina) $18,513
- Kevin Cramer (North Dakota) $13,255
Be well and share.
