It’s time to start asking what went wrong and look at the whole picture of a school massacre

It’s one thing to call for more “mental health” treatment, or to blame horrific events on a nebulous evil or a large-scale set of cultural ills. It’s quite another thing to identify specific defects in our social fabric, tie those defects to specific events in specific people’s lives, and devise specific options for how to mend the holes or re-weave the fabric.

I want to know exactly what went wrong, and fix it. I have a strong suspicion that everyone from presidents to everyday citizens of both major parties and of many walks of life will be found lacking if we take an honest look at the whole picture of how Mr. Cruz’s life arrived at the events of Feb. 14. I have a strong suspicion that a great many of us are part of the problem, even if we’ve never touched a gun or never intended to hurt a Douglas HS student or teacher.

I keep hearing more news coming out about warning signs and missed opportunities to help or at least contain the “broken human being” (to quote his public defender) who confessed to the massacre in Parkland on Valentine’s Day.

Here’s the thing: much as I want to see better gun control policy in the USA, I also know that preventing potential killers from easily getting their hands on guns and ammo will not solve the deeper issues that lead to massacres.

I hear that the FBI didn’t follow through on tips. I hear he passed a gun-buying background check despite being banned from carrying a backpack to school before he was expelled. I hear that he displayed behavior concerning enough to be reported over and over. I hear he had fallen under the influence of white supremacists and even drilled with them. And I hear that he is recently an orphan who was not given the treatment and care and community he needed.

I also hear calls for better school safety and better mental health policies from many people, including the President.

What I want to know is: how did the system fail Mr. Cruz? How did the community fail him? How did we all fail him, and how did we fail each other by not stopping him when he was perhaps beyond help? How did government agencies and laws at all levels fail him and fail his victims? What do we need to change—specifically—before the next time, to make sure there is no next time?

Not my President?

The President’s latest offensive comments are no surprise.  However, we have to draw a line in the sand somewhere and this seems a moment of clarity.

I gave him a chance. He failed even basic tests of presidential competency and decency. Repeatedly.

So, from now on, I shall consider myself a conscientious objector to the Presidency of the current President.

I at first thought it was denial to say #notmypresident. After the election, whether I liked it or not, he was my president.

But the reality is apparent at this point: he may be “the president,” but he is not my president, and I will not pretend any longer that he is. He probably never will be. Herod and Pontius Pilate may have had legal authority in first-century Palestine, but I know of at least one small junta of nomadic activists who did not recognize their authority as the rightful rulers of the people (and who clearly delineated the limits of Caiphas’s authority).

#Resist. Peacefully, firmly, within our democratic processes: resist.

Our children, grandchildren, future generations, and the rest of the world are watching. If you’re wondering what it looked like when “good people” stood by in the face of past atrocities and seemingly intolerable national outrages in various other countries, this is it. Stand and be counted as one who said, unequivocally, “No.”

The logical conclusion of the “shithole” controversy

The many people online defending the President’s calling Haiti, El Salvador, and THE CONTINENT OF AFRICA “shithole countries” make me sick.

Let’s follow the logical path forward. I would never use such a term to describe any of these countries, but I would agree that many have serious issues that can make them unsafe to live in and visit, depending on where you go (though I would never apply that description to THE ENTIRETY OF AFRICA). But you know what? The same could be said of the President’s beloved New York City, a place I and he both love to visit.

Anyway, following the logical path a bit more: if these countries are such “shitholes,” don’t we as a “Christian” nation have a moral and spiritual obligation to help them and to welcome the vulnerable and desperate into our “great” country as best we can? I’m not going to start quoting scripture, but the instructions to do so are legion.

So, are we a nation of people who follow “Christian” principles, or are we just a nation of selfish liars? We can’t have it both ways, no matter what the President says.

President Trump: “Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?”

 https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-attacks-protections-for-immigrants-from-shithole-countries-in-oval-office-meeting/2018/01/11/bfc0725c-f711-11e7-91af-31ac729add94_story.html

To this we’ve come.

I know people from those “shithole countries,” and they (and their cultures of origin, and their stories, and their families) are beautiful, valuable, and not shitty at all.

I’m tempted to tell the President of the United States of America where he can shove his opinion of their countries. But I won’t stoop to his level.

Instead, I’ll settle for giving him a milder piece of unsolicited but heartfelt advice, using the word he chose to describe my friends, colleagues, and fellow sojourners in this difficult journey of life

I invite the President to end his shitty presidency, resign his office, remove himself from the nation’s capital and the executive mansion he found so unimpressive, and take a very long (or permanent) vacation in one of the beautiful “shithole” locations he chose to denigrate. We will gladly take their immigrants if they will please look after him for the next three or so years.