Just Another School Shooting

I heard the reports that there was a gunman on an elementary school campus in Connecticut Friday morning around 8:30, right when I got into work to start Twittering and Facebooking for my clients. At that time the Tweets weren't saying there were any deaths, so I kept scrolling, looking for something relevant to post or retweet.

Had I clicked on any of the links in those tweets I might have learned far earlier what happened. It wasn't until after 11am Pacific time when a coworker asked  if we'd heard about the 27 dead in the school shooting.

Wait... what?

Twenty seven. Dead. Most of them children.

Throughout the day I paid close attention to Twitter, waiting to see the latest as the story unfolded. My office was quiet for a long time - like the rest of the country we were shocked, horrified and saddened that such a thing would happen to 6 and 7 year old kids. The shooter was barely an adult himself at just 20. Why would he target classrooms of little kids?

There was the range of typical emotions I felt on Friday (anger, frustration, sadness, shock), but one I did not feel was surprise. When I saw that first tweet my thought was just another school shooting. I hoped no one was injured, and assumed that if anyone was it would be just 1 or 2 people, like what had happened just two goddamned days earlier in Oregon. The point was this had happened so many times just in the last 6 months that I very nearly brushed it off completely. It seems like there's always someone with a gun  going crazy and not caring if they die. For a long time, Columbine was a word everyone knew. Then so was Virginia Tech. These places were where innocent kids (and young adults) died because a crazy classmate wanted to inflict as much pain and suffering as possible. Now I'm honestly having a hard time remembering the names of the schools and towns where massacres took place over the last two years. This year was that place in Arizona where the state representative was shot in the head but survived, there was the midnight movie theatre shooting in Aurora, Colorado, a few people killed in a mall in Oregon, and now there's Sandy Hook in Newtown, Connecticut, a place I'm sure to forget after the next few mass shootings. 

There's not enough time in between shootings now to really commemorate each location. We all knew Columbine and Virginia Tech like we knew 9/11. There are kids alive right now who know nothing of what it was like before we killed each other on a regular basis and endured being killed by extremists. Taking off their shoes, being touched by strangers in an airport security line and being scanned for explosives is just how we fly planes now. I remember when the building in Oklahoma City was bombed: that was heavy news for a good week that caused my mom to cry for days. I remember feeling for the kids in that building, there only because one company provided daycare for its employees, and wondering why that man would do such a thing.  Now a school shooting (as horrible as an elementary school massacre is) is just one more tragedy.*

A second thought: there was a lot of misinformation reported on Friday. Other than me thinking no one had died, it was reported that the shooter was targeting his mother, a teacher at Sandy Hook, and her classroom. It was also reported that the shooter's dad's body was found at his house later in the afternoon. It was also reported that there were two shooters, brothers, and one had escaped to the woods nearby. All of these things (and possibly more things) are false. There was one shooter, and his father is still alive. His mother, not a teacher at that school, was found shot to death in her bed in the home she shared with the shooter (it was her guns the shooter stole and used). The shooter acted entirely alone, and his brother was unfairly arrested and questioned. The Huffington Post also had to edit a report that "misidentified" a Facebook profile as that of the shooter (major oops).

What's with journalists? Are they so excited to be the first to report something that they won't check to make sure it's correct? Does accuracy not matter anymore? Just because one cop or paramedic makes a remark or comments on something does not mean it's true. Plus, the reporters were going around to the surviving 7 year olds and asking them what they heard, what they felt, and how they got out alive. Fucking 7 year old little kids are being interviewed and asked what it was like to survive one of the worst school shootings in the country's history. I wonder how that's going to make them feel when they're old enough to understand what happened. Reporters should have laid off the kids. Talk to adults in the school, or parents after they found out their kids were safe... but leave the traumatized kids alone.

*Aside: Up until the first week of November of this year the there was a lot of debate between the presidential candidates, their VPs, and various other congress members and senators about who will keep us safer from extremists who hate our way of life and want Americans dead. Maybe it's time to focus less on outside forces and more on those within our ranks who want us dead (or at least some of us). 

If We Don't Finish What We Started, The Terrorists Win

The morning of September 11, 2001

Ten years ago I was a new junior in high school. It was homework period in colorguard so I wore something a little cuter than normal because I didn't have to worry about getting them dirty spinning in mud. But when the carpool arrived, the mom shouted across the driveway to our mom that the World Trade Center went down. None of us knew what the World Trade Center was, but we could tell this was something big. At school, first period was homework and listening to the radio. I still didn't understand what was going on, only that terrorists from the Middle East somewhere flew our planes into two buildings in New York and a lot of people died.

I could grasp the seriousness of the situation but understanding it would take much of the next decade. Class that day consisted almost exclusively of teachers trying to answer questions and letting us mostly listen to the radio or do work silently. When I got home the news was on (it would stay on for a whole week) and both my parents were home. Over and over we watched as one plane after the other came out of absolutely nowhere to crash with incredible accuracy into the side of one of the tallest buildings in the world and stay there, burning a giant hole. Then we watched as smoke, ash, papers and debris flew over the streets of New York City covering citizens and firefighters from head to toe, people lying injured and bleeding, people running literally for their lives as cameras bravely rolled on. Then, we saw footage of people in the towers jumping from windows far, far too high. Many people jumped, which is something I still don't quite understand. That was perhaps the hardest thing to witness.

As a nation we were first shocked and scared, but we quickly turned to unity with one another and became angry, fully backing the war we'd just been brought into. Whatever it took to make the perps pay for the thousands of lives they cost (and the hundreds of thousands of lives that would eventually be lost) was justifiable.

Over the years America became overtly racist towards Muslims and anyone looking even remotely Middle Eastern. Then we started losing our own rights, one by one, in the name of protecting us from terrorists. First the Patriot Act, then losing virtually every freedom we had in airports, then allowing our phones and conversations and sometimes even our properties to be monitored by the government, all of which is justified by saying you have nothing to worry about if you have nothing to hide. What ever happened to "give me liberty of give me death?"

We've become so paranoid about another attack that we're willing to live in the shadow of fear for the rest of our lives or give up what were once basic rights. Because of one attempt we now have to take our shoes off at airports, plus all metal, plus go through a metal detector, and now (in addition to everything) body scanners that show our naked bodies and be pat down by a disgruntled and underpaid TSA employees. For what? Are we safer? Does turning over our nail clippers make us less likely to encounter another terrorist? I don't feel like it does.

However, I'd rather live with that risk and have an enjoyable life. I'd rather not be looking at every person with dark skin and a beard or a hijab and wonder if they're plotting against me. I'd rather take my chances when I fly than be forced to undress for a stranger. I'd rather live freely in the Land of the Free than be afraid of the police who are supposed to protect me, wondering if some innocent thing I do will be considered suspicious. But I feel alone in these preferences. So many of those I know would rather spend an hour in airport security half naked because it makes them feel safer in the air, or allowing phone tapping because, as true patriots, they have nothing to hide. If there's even a chance that these measures will prevent another terrorist attack they'll allow them, even if it impacts our way of life.

This is not what it means to be an American. If we were attacked for our way of life we should be living that way of life louder and prouder than ever. We should taunt those who hate us, beg them to try again. But we aren't. For the last ten years we've been afraid, deeply divided, and hateful of anyone that isn't us. We've given up on our schools, our economy, and fortifying the strength of our country on our soil in favor of "helping" other countries form democracies and ensuring our safety overseas.

What if we just said fuck it, we're done, we tried and we're calling quits. What if we stopped spending the billions on Iraq and Afghanistan and started spending that money on educating our kids so we can be even stronger in 40 years, or providing jobs to those who have been out of work for 6 months or more so we can have a strong and vibrant economy again? What if we cared about our people and our country half as much as we cared about other countries, and what if we spent our defense money on protecting our borders? I'd be very interested to see.

There are hundreds who died ten years ago saving, or trying to save, the lives of others, and hundreds of thousands of others deeply affected by September 11, 2001. I'm grateful I didn't lose anyone in those attacks, grateful those I know in our armed forces returned to their families, grateful I was as old as I was when the attacks happened. I'm sad to see the direction my country went after that day and I hope one day we turn around and can become the hopeful, strong, leading country we used to be again. I also hope those who lost someone due to the attacks and the wars that followed will heal and were OK today. Finally, I hope those lives weren't lost in vain and that something good will again come from all of this.

Pretend War

And this was attached to an article on NPR censorship. HA!

It's becoming more and more difficult to believe the Westboro Baptist Church really is (or believe they are) an organization dedicated to God, and not just the biggest and meanest trolls in America. On the one hand, they're all members of the same inbred Kansas family so who knows what their collective IQ is and what they're brainwashed to believe, and if they really are the extreme extremists they present themselves as they could very well fully believe everything they preach. But on the other hand, they're so extreme extremists that it's absurd; there's absolutely no connection whatsoever between the Bible and the things they shout from the media rooftops. And I don't know which I hope they are: if they're retarded fundamentalists it's scary that one family can cause so much pain and suffering to other families and believe God will reward them for it, but if they're just trolling for funzies that would make them so very, very bad it's hard to believe.

The whole reason I'm starting to think the WBC might just be an evil troll is their most recent ploy for attention. A letter was posted at AnonNews.org addressed to the WBC essentially saying the collective people (anonymous) are sick and tired of the WBC hiding their atrocious actions behind free speech and it's time the WBC put an end to everything this year or else face being hacked into oblivion. Naturally the WBC posted a response letter saying "bring it" and citing a bunch of random Bible verses. And now God hates fags and lousy hackers.

And here's the kicker: both letters were written by Westboro Baptist Church to incite a war with the sole goal of being in headlines for a few weeks (and possibly sue potential hackers for money, but I have no idea how all that hacking stuff works). So Anonymous (the real deal this time) issued a statement saying nice try, "don't call us, we'll call you." Which is kind of too bad, because I was really looking forward to the WBC being hacked into oblivion. But I guess it's good, because Anonymous comes out better in the end. They've shown that the WBC is a lying sack of AWing shit and are going to ignore them and tackle some more important issues. Like how half the world is protesting their governments right now and millions are being killed.

Having just learned of Anonymous and its purpose, I'm proud that it exists. Go Internet underdogs! But at the same time I'm disappointed that it has to exist. Between WikiLeaks and the ongoing cover-up fiasco and large financial institutions deliberately falsifying information to embarrass rivals for financial gain (see here) it's embarrassing for Americans that the giant corporations that run our country are acting like 5th graders. Aren't we better than this?

Fleshmob!

And terrorism. Yeah, that's right, terrorism!

This is one of the coolest videos I've seen in ages. It's a "fleshmob" in a German airport. Like a flashmob, it involves lots of people converging on one location. Unlike a flashmob, these people have an agenda. (At least, one that's not "silliness.")

OK, we all know terrorism sucks and we should protect ourselves as best we can from terrorists among us. But full body scanners? Really, government? I don't see these things lasting long: they're too expensive to be worth the inevitable cost of lawsuits, and they won't even be in every airport, or even in every security line in the airports that buy them.

So these ballsy Germans are voicing their concerns. We should not be giving up every freedom we have because for each freedom we give up in the name of "safety" the terrorists get a point. And they're winning.

Our government can tap our personal phones, confiscate our laptops and Blackberries without cause, make us throw away lotion, and now has permission to give full body scans and under-clothes pat downs. When will it stop? When will Americans realize that by giving up the very freedoms terrorists are killing us for, the very freedoms our military is dying to protect, that we're giving up?

We should take a cue from the German fleshmob. We should refuse to submit like dogs to these so called protections. Seriously, we can't get up during the last hour of a flight because some idiot tried (and failed) to blow up a plane he was on right before it landed. (Never mind that the attacks on 9/11 occurred during the first hour of a transcontinental flight.) Have we forgotten that the only reason that recent attempt got as far as it did was because our intelligence agencies didn't communicate that day? They were gonna detain the guy when the plane landed! Too late, guys!

I would rather live with the freedoms my country promised me and die that live without them.

Love Of Country

Irony: when Americans give up their unalienable rights and constitutional freedoms in order to protect and preserve their unalienable rights and constitutional freedoms as Americans.

For reasons I don't understand, Dick Cheney has been in the news more in the months since he left office than when he was in office. This time it's because he created an executive program to "assassinate al-Qaida operatives in friendly countries without the knowledge of their governments."

Whiskey. Tango. Foxtrot. Seriously.

Now, Cheney can hide behind the "it's for the good of the country" excuse. But counter terrorism is still terrorism, especially if it's done behind the backs of our friends on their land. If the tables were turned I highly doubt we'd be OK with countries like Kenya or Israel killing terrorists on our streets without asking first.

Though done under the guise of protecting the country, I believe Dick is missing the days of being the schoolyard bully. He does shitty things under the public impression that he is a superhero defending their babies and lawns. He was (almost) the man in charge and, since he wasn't part of the executive branch, he could quite literally get away with murder.

Before anyone gets on me for being unpatriotic and not wanting to do anything possible (regardless of legality) to get those bastards who killed our citizens on September 11th, 2001, doesn't it feel a little backwards that we have to give up our freedoms in order to protect our freedoms? Does it make you feel safer knowing that the government might be listening in on your private phone conversations or that the guy next to you threw away his Diet Coke in the airport security line? Are these the things making us safe now?

Personally, I'd rather take my chances with the airlines and my cell phone and the guy in the turban teaching biology section. I'd rather my government focus on real solutions to nationwide fear. I'd rather wave my flag on our Independence Day and be proud we're following our own ideals because those ideals are more important than anything, even our lives. If America is taking this new direction, I don't want to live here.