Are You Angry Enough Yet?

One Dead, Several Injured in Shooting at Oklahoma High School Football Game 

Ironic, wasn't it, that the anti-woke governor of Florida, the guy whose attacks on teacher classroom autonomy, local school board control, Critical Race Theory, student freedom of conscience and just about every other constitutional right except, of course, unrestricted and unregulated gun ownership, had a statement to make about the tragic and racially motivated shooting in a Dollar General store in Jacksonville, Florida this past week.  It's hard to take his remarks seriously, as it appeared those who heard them not only failed to applaud, but actually booed the guy.  

I don't think I've ever seen a statement made by a governor in a more resistant, unemotional, "do I have to do this?" attitude than Ron Desantis when he was making his obligatory remarks.  We're seeing exactly how unfit and unqualified he is to be the governor of Florida, much less President of the United States, something he will never get to do.  

Florida might be the capital of mass shootings, along with Texas, where going to an outlet mall in the suburbs can be fatal.  But in yet another red state, Oklahoma, a sacred high school football game, a community ritual, was interrupted by gunfire, taking the life of one person and injuring multiple others.  Lots of tongue clicking, head shaking and "thoughts and prayers" with that one, but will it make a difference?  Will Jacksonville?  Not any more than the shooting at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida did, or, for that matter, Columbine.  

Even Though This Hits Home for Some Republicans, They Will do Nothing About it

Last spring, a heavily armed shooter entered The Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee, shooting up the building and leaving three students and three adults, along with himself, dead in its wake.  There were close connections between one of the teachers who was murdered, and the wife of current Tennessee governor Bill Lee, and the school and church where the shooting happened had close ties with the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) congregation just a few miles away where Tennessee Senator Marsha Blackburn is a member.  It did not matter that this tragedy hit so close to home, both Republican politicians were unmoved, offering nothing to assure anyone this would not happen again.  

That kind of calloused indifference is characteristic of both Governor Lee and Senator Blackburn, wealthy people who really aren't moved by much of anything.  

Football is the social life of most Oklahoma communities.  So a shooting at a game would almost certainly hit close to home, disrupting the social life and threatening the very heart of the community.  I'll wait to see if anything comes of the incident except blaming someone else.  The two schools involved in the game, Del City and Choctaw, are in the Oklahoma City suburbs, both overwhelmingly white and relatively affluent communities, though Choctaw still retains some of its rural characteristics.  The superintendents of both school districts issued a statement that their "thoughts and prayers" were going out to the victims of the shooting.  

Yet Another Racially-Motivated Shooting Encouraged by Today's Political Rhetoric

Neither the governor of Florida, not the former failed President 45 of the United States pulled the trigger in the Jacksonville shooting.  But their rhetoric has encouraged violence, it's been open and clearly stated, and it doesn't matter whether there's a specific statement that prompted it, or whether it was just an overall attitude of racial bigotry that devalues the lives of black people.  Their racist attitude and their obligation to support the gun lobby because of all the money they've taken from them, is to blame.  That's up to we, the people, to rectify.  

Freedom of speech and expression, guaranteed in the constitution, covers despicable, disgusting, and to use a word that the failed President 45 overuses, disgraceful racist bigotry.  They can be racist if they want to, they can say what they want to say, they can wear hoods and robes if they're too ashamed for people to know who they are.  But they can't commit murder, intimidation, inflict physical or psychological harm.  Crimes committed by racists should have separate sentences designed to discourage the practice and make sure these racists are not released back out into society, ever again.  

For the politicians who downplay this, claim it's not happening, or seem indifferent to it, and especially those who want to eliminate the educational objectives designed to fight against systemic racism, the effect of not having any support from its victims should drive the point home.  Systemic racism exists, is a real thing, and can be eliminated with education and time.  If Evangelicals put the energy into fighting against this, instead of letting it invade their congregations and drive their political loyalty, that they did into their opposition to Roe v. Wade, they might have also made a difference.  It's a sin, but not one they want to avoid.  

The Means to "Vote 'Em Out" Exists, Even in Deep Red States

Using Texas as an example, the numbers work for voting out bigots, racists and politicians owned by the gun lobby.  People of color, including the African-American and Latino population, make up 53% of the total.  Non-Hispanic whites make up 39.7%, while Hispanics make up 39.3% of the population.  If you calculate the percentage of votes for Republicans and Democrats among whites, compared to Hispanics, they are almost mirror images of each other, with whites coming in at 67.5% Republican, and Hispanics at 68.5% Democrat, according to exit polls in the 2022 election.  That should offset each other, with African Americans delivering the difference for Democrats.  

But here's another important difference.  Voter registration and participation is much higher among the white population than it is among Hispanics and blacks in Texas.  The percentage of white, Republican voter turnout bested both white Democrats and Hispanic Democrats by more than 15%, with an African American turnout that was slightly lower, the numbers just weren't there.  There's a lot of voter intimidation in Texas, lots of fear, that keeps a percentage of the minority population away from the polls, and from even registering to vote.  If we want change, that's where it has to happen and those disenfranchised voters, mostly minorities, in Texas, Florida and elsewhere, have the wherewithal to change the outcome of elections.  We have to find a way to get the message out, and help by motivating them to vote, and supporting them when they do. 

A Bold Proposal is Exactly What We Need

As an educator myself, I see schools as a means of providing necessary instruction which will give students the facts about systemic racism that they need to be discerning in their voting, and in the other aspects of their life, including bringing down the racial barriers that exist in this country.  When they've been given a chance, they've done exactly that.  I would like to see the federal government get creative, think out of the box and find ways to bypass Florida's restrictions on educational objectives.  Cutting federal funding off sounds drastic, but money talks.  But there's a lot of money for getting the information into the hands of students who are being denied the truth in their school classrooms. 

California Governor Gavin Newsom has come up with a proposal to put gun control into the constitution without violating the second amendment.  Part of that requires interpreting the second to mean exactly what the founders intended, not the unrestricted chaos that we now have, courtesy of the NRA and gun manufacturer money.  The other part rests on raising the minimum age to own a gun to 21, running universal background checks on all purchasers, instituting a waiting period for gun purchases, and restricting civilian access to military weapons that the founders did not have in mind when they wrote the second amendment.  

America fights tyranny at the ballot box, and we have the best equipped, best trained military in the world.  We don't need private citizens with arsenals of arms for any reason, including internal security.  The states take care of all of the weapons needed by the "well ordered militia," or national guard.  

My Dad always used to say that when people get angry enough at politicians, they take action and vote them out.  So, are you angry enough yet?  We got angry and kicked Trump and his swamp rats out.  Are we ready to start on these red states?