At least seven small children were just killed in their elementary school because, ultimately, of policies the Republican party champions. At least two more were killed outside their schools. And that number is likely to rise, as recovery efforts are still underway as I write. Indeed, the number may end up exceeding the child death toll of Sandy Hook. And the total death toll in Moore, Oklahoma, is already greater than that suffered by Newtown, New Hampshire.
SO, WHERE'S ALL THE OUTRAGE? I KNOW I'M MAD AS HELL - HOW ABOUT YOU?
After the Sandy Hook tragedy, there was an immediate outcry for reform because of the horrific deaths of such young children, and the heroic teachers who tried to save them at the risk of their own lives. So, why are there so few calls for reform now? And why are those which have been raised so roundly ignored by the media?
Could it be because we, as a nation, left or right, conservative or liberal, Democrat, or Republican... we ALL have our priorities backward, in one way or another? I think it is.
My fellow progressives, I know many of you have long supported the idea of gun control, even as many do not. But no matter where you stand on the gun control debate, I submit to you that as tragic as the massacres carried out by murderers with guns can be, especially when military style guns are used, we are going to suffer the losss of far more innocents over the years to come (including children) from extreme weather as a result of climate change, than we will from gun massacres. Many, many more.
And so, if our calls for reform are louder and more insistent for gun reform, than for energy reform, then we truly have our priorities backwards.
Let me put this in more stark terms. Guns do not cause droughts. Climate change does. Guns will not cause extreme storms. Climate change has. Guns are used to fight wars, but they do not cause wars. Climate Change will, just as our current energy policy has. Guns cannot kill all of us, climate change can!
SO WAKE UP!! If you're not already, it's time to get mad as hell and stop taking it! It's time, it's WAY PAST time to put our priorities straight! And those priorities need to be to do everything we can to undo the damage we've done to our atmosphere, and to redesign our infrastructure to withstand the war Mother Nature has already begun to wage on us.
Fortunately, those are manageable prioroties with a lot of common ground, and common solutions. Republican or Democrat, we all want to keep our children safe. Liberal or conservative, we all tend to support the idea of cleaner energy sources. One side or the other, we all want America to be the best country in the world. And so it only follows that we all want our children to go to safe schools which can even handle the dangers of this modern world, whether that be a massive storm, or a nut case with a massive gun. And it also follows that we all want to breathe cleaner air, and get cheaper energy, and since we can do that with green energy, we should. So what's the hold up?
I say we start with the schools. What better place to start than where the risk of the loss of our most precious lives is the most concentrated? Especially when those places are also the most ripe for updating!
Consider what we've learned in Moore and Newtown... The children killed in both schools died because their school wasn't designed to deal with the kind of tragedy that befell them. In Moore, it was because no part of the school was designed to withstand a direct hit from an EF 4 or 5 tornado, depsite the previous tornado activity in the area. In Newtown, it was because a gunman was able to get into the school, despite all the other school shootings that had taken place in the past. In both cases, we as a society should have seen it coming and prevented it. Let's not squander these lessons, too!
If you think about it, some of what we need to do is obvious. If the schools in Moore had suitable tornado shelters, then children would not have drowned in rainwater while pinned under debris. If the school in Newtown had bullet proof windows, then children would not have been shot to death by a man who shot his way through a window to enter. These are common sense, do-able reforms that we don't need to have a constitutional argument about! WHAT THE HELL ARE WE WAITING FOR? Where are the bills requiring mandatory infrastructure improvement in schools, at the very least? Where are the legislators? ISN'T THIS OBVIOUS?
So, let's get our priorities straight, America! Let's start updating our schools and the rest of our infrastructure, energy and otherwise, to provide for, and protect our citizenry in this new reality, and to help undo the harm that has been done. And lets start by pushing to upgrade our school buildings.
Because, I assure you, we WILL see both of these kinds of tragedies in our schools again, soon, unless we take action before it's too late for even more innocent kids!