In the late eighties, when I was in High School, we had things pretty easy. Yes, there was the occasional fight, but for the most part, things were pretty calm, and I never felt unsafe headed to my classes. By the time my daughter started school, I could immediately tell that things were different. I remember sitting on on her third grade class, and hearing her classmates talking during the lesson, and cursing enough to make a sailor blush. When she hit middle school, I remember her coming home one day, and telling me that her teachers couldn’t teach, because they had to act as Zookeepers instead.

Teachers already have taken on the roles of counselor, surrogate parent, and instructor. Do we really want them to also take on the role of Soldier? Or Police officer?

The current administration refers to schools as ‘soft targets’. So, where else have we had these shootings? Let’s take a look – churches have been targeted. So are they ‘soft targets’? Shopping malls, outdoor events – are they ‘soft targets’? There are lots of soft targets, but no one talks about having armed guards at Church, so why have them at a learning institution? And the bigger question – do we really want to live in a country where we are constantly under armed guard, with weapons openly displayed in schools, churches, and social events? Is that really the only way we can feel safe?

I’m sorry, but I don’t buy into that as being the only option. Indeed, while I will not argue any ‘slippery slope’ fallacy, I will say that having more guns available is not the only, or even the best, option. Now, if a teacher who already carries a firearm as a private citizen wishes to carry while on campus – sure, let them. But that is a far cry from a mandate for these academically inclined people to be forced to carry a weapon for the safety of themselves and their charges. If I felt so unsafe at my job that I felt I had to carry a gun to work every day, I would simply find another job, someplace else, where I didn’t have to live in that kind of fear.

But as this debate progresses, it’s clear that there is no other job, and no other place, where people can feel safe. It’s simply not that simple anymore. If we have to arm the citizenry just to keep the madness at bay, we may as well be living in a police state. And no one living in a police state ever feels safe. Indeed, the debate over public safety is more of a debate on preserving the very reasons we feel free. Living in peace is part of the very fabric of the ‘pursuit of happiness’ for the vast majority of Americans. Sadly, we are losing the freedoms we hold dear, the freedoms that defined us as a people, when we live in constant fear. Will more guns make you feel safe? For some people, the answer is yes – but that answer does not fit everyone. And in a free country, that answer shouldn’t be the only option, or forced on anyone.

Let’s discuss other options.

I have been lucky enough to have some extraordinary kids in my life. Not only my daughter, but many of her friends, are people of morality and character that far exceeds the majority of adults I know, or see on television in their capacity as politician, pundit and all-around pessimist. Yes, some of their generation are idiots. The same can be said of every generation – including yours. So that is a moot point.

The generation coming up sees through the BS that older generations have bought into; they see lies as lies and not ‘alternative facts’; they know the difference between right, wrong, and what is worth fighting for. We are lucky that they are our future, and I for one will do what *any* proud American, or proud adult, should do. I will stand with them, offer help and guidance as they take the mantle, and take their rightful place in society. And I will help them make the changes that the generations before them were too scared, or too selfish, to make.

These kids won’t be kids forever. And they see exactly what is being done.

To the Powers that Be: your time in charge is coming to an end. This movement started in Columbine. It started in Sandy Hook. It started at a theater in Aurora, Colorado, and it started in Vegas at a concert. And just recently, it started at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School.

“And these children that you spit on as they try to change their worlds;
are immune to your consultations, they are quite aware of what they are
going through.”

-David Bowie

The recent comments regarding the activist kids who survived the Florida shooting have me puzzled. Pundits and trolls alike have been calling for these ‘kids’ to ‘keep quiet’, or ‘grow up’. I’m paraphrasing here, because the actual words used in many cases are vulgarity-laden tirades not worthy of my keystrokes.

It seems to me that, by finding a cause to stand up for, and actively working to change a broken system, these kids are doing at least part of what the trolls are wanting. They are growing up; far faster, and in ways we’d never hope anyone had to, but growing up just the same. And we should be proud of them.

For a generation who gave us stupidities like the ‘Cinnamon challenge’, (and don’t even get me started on the Tide Pods), we should be more than proud that these kids actually understand. They represent the best of their era, and they give me hope for the future of our country and our world. We have worked as a society to give them an education, to teach them ways to think and act for themselves, so they can be contributing members of society, and these kids are stepping up to the plate to knock that out of the park.

It seems hypocritical to call them out for doing exactly what any good citizen should do – which is take part in the national conversation, and support their views with logical facts and well-reasoned arguments. We cannot urge people to participate in our governing processes only to ridicule them for doing so when we don’t like what they have to say. That is *not* how it works.

And, for those who say, ‘these are just kids; they can’t even vote’, I would urge you to consider adding something to that thought. They cannot even vote “yet” . Their time at the ballot box is coming fast, and their voices will be heard. Considering that most of the criticism is coming from generations where barely half of the eligible voters actually take the time to do so, this seems like just another hypocritical argument.

We should be proud of these kids. The last thing we should want is for them to ‘keep quiet’. This is their country, too.

Another shooting at an American High School. Looking back over my work, I realized that the first time I wrote on this subject was back in 2000, when a kindergartner brought a gun to school to ‘play’ with, and accidentally killed a classmate. If memory serves, I ended that piece with the suggestion that readers should “go home and hug their children”.

Eighteen years after that first piece, my children have grown info the fine young adults they are today, but the world around us has grown more dangerous. And now, as it really was then, hugs aren’t enough to comfort the loss we should all feel over this tragedy. It’s the same pattern, over and over again; disturbed or mentally ill individual finally breaks and goes on a killing spree. The first I remember happened at a McDonald’s in California in the mid eighties. The nation was shocked that anyone could do such a thing. Now, after more (peacetime) mass shootings than any other country in the world, what have we changed? Laws have been tweaked here and there, but that certainly hasn’t solved the problem. And as a society, more and more people are getting lost in a system that prefers to incarcerate rather than help, and too often the needed help comes either too late, or not at all.

Some say we need tighter gun laws. Others say it’s a mental health issue.
And listening to both sides, they both seem right. Until I realized that neither of those actually addresses the problem.

As with all things, the problems comes from different places for different people. Some are mentally ill; why are they untreated? Some are criminals; changing the laws on gun ownership means nothing to those who already break the law as a lifestyle. And some, like the shooter Dylan Roof in Charleston, are just terrorist – racist fools who think they are going to help start a race war.

Sadly, I’m sure there are variants of these types that we haven’t seen yet. And unless we act, we most certainly will see more of the above, and worse.

In a country that prides itself on freedom, you cannot legislate people into better behavior, broader worldviews, or mental health. Truly, if we are really going to be free, then even these people have to have the freedom to take these actions. But just because you ‘can do a thing, does not mean you *must* do a thing’, and having the freedom to murder does not mean you have to do so. We need to find out ‘why’ these murderers have made this choice, and help build a country where even the bigots know that murder is not a path to choose – a country the mentally unstable or ill get much needed treatment, and help to get their lives on track. And, dare I say, a country where a gun fanatic can own as many firearms as he or she likes, without fear of judgement.

We need to meet the needs of the people in our society, not only through Governance, but through enacting Social change. And that starts with each of us, acting each day to help.

If one school shooting doesn’t alarm and horrify you, you may very well be part of the problem. If dozens over half as many years doesn’t scare the hell out of you – you *are* the problem.

Stock has been ordered, my room is booked, and I’m gearing up to see *YOU* at CoastCon 41!

Come see me at CoastCon, March 16, 17 & 18th, at the Mississippi Coast Coliseum, Biloxi.

I don’t have my panel schedule yet, but as soon as I do, I will let you know!

SAVE THE DATE!

CoastCon 46

odd question: why do people thrive upon reading the darkness within others? Do they feel excited, because the words are only on the page, and they feel safe? Emboldened to explore their own darker thoughts?

Do they not realize that those dark thoughts, no matter who they come from, still linger quietly under the bed, waiting for the opportunity to make it count? That releasing those deamons in the slightest gives them hold in the real world, outside of one’s mind, to wreck havoc in both dreams and waking consciousness?

Do you really know the door you open, when you invite in the mind of another?

Follow the yellow brick link – – –

https://nocaesthetic.blogspot.com/2018/01/were-all-mad-here.html

I somehow wasn’t getting the notifications that my domain was about to expire, so if you hit my URL over the weekend or Monday, and saw nothing – I apologies. As you can see, all systems are back up and running.

Stay tuned for updates soon!

‘every story ever told happened’; somewhere, in mind or in history, all we see happened somewhere.

The Celts considered what happened in you mind to be as valid as what happened to your body. Other civilizations look to your tales to deem your worth (are your imaginings kind and generous, or are they hateful and selfish).

America is NOT holding to the ‘kind and generous’, even though it is voices as the ‘Christian’ standard.
You can protect yourselves without hating people from foreign lands.

And when it comes to generosity – no, the poor are not ‘just lazy’. I’ve worked my A$$ off for decades. And I know hundreds more like me.

Call me lazy? You just lost ANY respect i can offer you. You will NEVER have any idea.

Lastly (for now), your patriotic BS seems to forget that we are UNITED America – these states signed onto an idea that, giving up some basic sovereignty, and UNITING together, made us STRONGER. So, despite the DIVERSE people in each state, the founding fathers saw that as a Strength – not a weakness.

You who seek to divide us do so for your own fear, your own gain, and your own shortcomings.

Division is NOT what the UNITED STATES was founded on.

Learn your damn history, see past failures and LEARN FROM THEM!

and turn off the voices that preach to you otherwise. They are nothing but poison.

Among the *many* patterns I’ve noticed is, these people almost always take their own lives, instead of facing what they’ve done, or going out ‘guns blazin’ as so many braggarts say they would.

They are cowards, plain and simple. They are weak-minded, useless simpletons who can only feel powerful when taking the lives of innocents. When faced with having to answer for their crimes, they take the cowards way out.

Yes, this is a mental health issue; yes, there are arguments to be made for tighter gun laws. Yes, this is also a social issue, and no legislation can correct a populous that is riddled with self-hate, lashes out meaninglessly, and somehow perpetuates the creation of others like them.

You can bet your ass that, despite all the ‘thoughts and prayers’ coming out of Washington, you won’t see a mental health bill anymore than you will see a gun control bill. And you sure as hell won’t see the majority of Americans (who exist in the political middle) have any chance of being heard over the loud, bombastic sensationalist, who use their hyperbolic arguments to do exactly what is not needed; they cause even more fear, generate more hopelessness, and grow more cowards.

It is past time to stand up. We were Eagles, once. Now, we are nothing but a joke, living in ever-descending cycles of anger and insanity. And that isn’t the fault of our government – that crime belongs, at some level, to us all.

So, what can we do? First, we need to reject our fear, be it of change, death, life, whatever. Fear makes people feel powerless, and we are anything but. You don’t have to kill unarmed people to be able to realize that.

Second, we need to actually hold people to higher standards of behavior, both in business, and in day to day activities. There is no room for hypocrisy here. We all know how we should act; why give a pass for bad behavior to someone just because they share some of your views? An asshole is an asshole, no matter what colours they wear, or what flavor their politics take.

Last, we need to stop looking for scapegoats for all our problems, and tackle the issues together. Pointing fingers of blame is childish, and useless. Find the problem, gather real experts, find a solution that works for everyone (meaning, dare I say it, *compromise*!) and come together like the UNITED country we are supposed to be.

No, this won’t solve everything, but its a start. And these are steps that we can all begin to take, in our daily lives, to help stop this murderous madness from forcing us all down a much darker road.