This Must S T O P ! ! !

This is May 19 of 2018.  So far, in this calendar year, more people have been killed in schools on American soil than Americans have been killed in combat around the world.  That is a shocking and heart-breaking TRUTH.  No matter what the current President of the United States claims, this is not "fake news."  And the hurt to our country cannot be healed by "thoughts and prayers."
   Yesterday, a 17-year-old boy went to school wearing a black trench coat and a T-shirt that had "Born to Kill" printed on it and carrying a duffle bag..  He was armed with his father's shotgun and .38 caliber handgun, and he had also made several explosive devices - pipe bombs, a Molotov cocktail, and a couple of pressure-cooker-type bombs.  He pulled the Fire Alarm, and then yelled, "Surprise!" as he opened the door to an art room and opened fire.
   Ten people are known to be dead, and ten more were wounded.  Three of the people wounded were in critical condition in hospitals late last night.  One of them is the Santa Fe High School resource officer, a retired detective named John Barnes.  He took a shot in his arm that apparently severed an artery.  He is hanging on to life.   One young man, Rome Shubert, is lucky to be alive - the gunman shot him in the head, but he was giving interviews this afternoon.
   I have the names of nine of the ten people who did not survive the attack.  Two were adults, a substitute teacher and the teacher's aide in the art class where the shooting began...  The adults are Ann Perkins, the substitute teacher; and Cynthia Tisdale, the teacher's aide.  One of the students killed was a Pakistani exchange student, Sabika Sheikh.  The other students who have been identified are: Chris Stone, Shana Fisher, Christian "Riley" Garcia, Angelique Ramirez, Kim Jessica Vaughn, and Kyle McLeod.  Addendum: Jared Black is the name of the tenth victim; he, too, was a student at Santa Fe High School.
  The killing of students, teachers, coaches, mentors, and others on school campuses must STOP.

Over the 20 weeks of this  year, there have been 18 school shootings in the United States where someone has been hurt or killed. All but one of the suspected shooters have been male.  This is a list of school shootings in 2018 that meet the following four criteria: (1) at least one person was shot; (2) it happened on school grounds; (3) it included kindergarten through high school; and (4) it involved a firearm.   -  This list goes backward in time.
  18 May 2018 -   Santa Fe High School     Santa Fe, Texas
       10 dead, 10 wounded            17-year-old surrendered

  11 May 2018 -    Highland High School      Palmdale, California
       1 wounded                             14-year-old  charged with attempted murder

  20 April 2018 -    Forest High School      Ocala, Florida
       1 injured                                 19-year-old shot classroom door with shotgun

  12 April 2018 -     Raytown South Middle School        Raytown, Missouri
        1 wounded                             Man shot in stomach during track meet in school parking lot

 20 March 2018 -     Great Mills High School         Lexington Park, Maryland
        2 dead, 1 wounded                 Student shot two other students, then fatally shot by school officer

 13 March 2018 -       Seaside High School         Seaside, California
      1 wounded, 2 injured            Teacher fired a gun into the ceiling; ricochet fragments struck student

 7 March 2018 -       Huffman High School        Birmingham, Alabama
     1 dead, 1 wounded                                19-year-old charged with attempted murder

 20 February 2018 -      Jackson Middle School         Massillon, Ohio
      1 dead                                        13-year-old committed suicide; reportedly had plans to kill others

 14 February 2018 -      Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School     Parkland, Florida
      17 dead, 14 wounded                 19-year-old expelled student

  9 February 2018 -      Pearl-Cohn High School            Nashville, Tennessee
     1 wounded                                   Student shot five times in parking lot

 5 February 2018 -      Oxon Hill High School           Prince George's County, Maryland
     1 wounded                                   Two students charged with attempted murder

 1 February 2018 -      Salvador Castro Middle School        Los Angeles, California
     5 injured                                       12-year-old girl "accidentally" discharged firearm in class

 31 January 2018 -      Lincoln High School            Mayfair, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
      1 dead                                        32-year-old man shot in parking lot after a fight

 23 January 2018 -      Marshall County High School        Benton, Kentucky
      2 dead, 17 wounded                    15-year-old student charged

 22 January 2018 -      NET Charter High School         New Orleans, Louisiana
      1 wounded                                   Drive-by shooting into a school parking lot

 22 January 2018 -      Italy High School         Italy, Texas
      1 wounded                                    16-year-old opened fire in school cafeteria

 9 January 2018 -       Coronado Elementary School          Sierra Vista, Arizona
     1 killed                                           14-year-old committed suicide in bathroom

 3 January 2018 -      East Olive Elementary School          St. John, Michigan
    1 killed                                           31-year-old man committed suicide in parking lot

Crazy Behavior

Logically, I know that "crazy behavior" has been around since the beginning of mankind.  While I was growing up, much of the madness was never heard of because we were then still relying on local newspapers and local news stations to report events.  The national evening news was tightly edited and gone over with a fine-toothed comb before being broadcast.  Telephones were the fastest way of communicating - there was no Twitter, no Instagram, no internet or world wide web, no Facebook. I've looked at several collections of small town local newspapers, and seen a lot of news items that would have made headlines today.  But that was years ago, when we were all still relatively insulated from the world as a whole, and before today's almost instantaneous news and gossip dispersal via new and trending technological  devices.
    I was appalled to hear of the shooting, yesterday, in the Fort Lauderdale Airport.  I was even more surprised to find that the young man accused of this crime had checked his gun and ammunition through baggage, and had loaded his weapon in the men's restroom, before going out to kill and injure multiple people.  But what really stopped me short, and made my jaw drop in wonder, was that the accused was being prosecuted in New Jersey for domestic violence - that he had partially strangled his girlfriend after striking her in the head.  Anyone who has been charged with domestic violence should not be permitted to carry a gun...
   The other day, I received a friend request on Facebook.  I looked at the name, and couldn't recognize the man.  I then looked at his Facebook page - the only information listed was that he was from Pittsburgh, PA and that he now lives in Boston, MA.  There were no photos of the man, himself.  There were multiple images of the Steelers football team, and a couple of photos that were, I guess, his dogs.  I declined to be the man's friend.  For two reasons: no photo and no information regarding himself; and the fact that he is a Steelers fan.  I know I have a bunch of friends out their who are fans of the Pittsburgh Steelers.  It's because I know you that I ignore your team affiliation.  I simply can't stand the quarterback of the Pittsburgh Steelers - and all of the rapes that he has gotten away with, due to his star football status.  There are several other "sports stars" that I denigrate for the same reason.  -  But the poor man who asked to be my friend has no inkling as to why I turned down his request...  Oh, well.
   I'll soon be heading out to buy cat food, kitty snacks, and kitty litter.  Then off to  pick up Donn's mail, followed by a stop at the library.  I've read all my books, am halfway through the last one, and need new reading material.  I think I'll pick up some ancient British history while I'm at it - my latest delvings into the family tree keep taking me back to the twelfth century, soon after the Norman invasion, and I keep seeing names I know from previous history readings.  I have to say, family trees are always fascinating.

Shootings....

As I declared in my Second Amendment series, I do support the right for individual Americans to own and bear arms.  But I do not support the right of people to go out and kill our law enforcement officers.  I am NOT saying that law enforcement officers had the right to shoot the people they stopped in Louisiana and Minnesota - far from it - but when Americans (or any other populace) take the law into their own hands and kill for no reason, I consider that anarchy.
    No one person has the right to decide who lives and who dies in America.  The people, or person, who shot the law enforcement officers at a protest in Dallas committed a heinous crime.  That same heinous crime was committed in Louisiana and Minnesota, by law officers.  But I ask you, if your son or daughter was in law enforcement, in your home state, should he (or she) become a target of hatred because of the death of another person in another state?  That is just stupid and ridiculous.
   I grew up in Florida during the Civil Rights Movement during the 1960s.  I grew up with segregation and, then, integration.  I was, occasionally, threatened, by females of my own age, but with another color of skin.  That initially frightened me - until I realized they were threatening me because they, too, were frightened.  I became best friends with one of those girls in school.  - No big deal.
    But what I see in the United States today is very frightening to me.  A few people who own a gun/weapon, are making a lot of noise by killing other people who don't deserve to die, and that, in turn, makes it difficult for those people who own a gun/weapon (who keep it safely and fire it legally) to say they are a gun owner without an immediate backlash.   ....  I know that there are people who rob banking institutions in America.  I know that some type of bank robbery occurs daily in America. Bank robberies hurt everyone involved with banking.  However, there are very few people shot to death during a bank robbery on a daily basis.   ....   This is not true when it comes to gun violence in the United States.
    If I lived in another country, I believe I'd be afraid to visit the USA on a vacation, to see the sights. One can read every day about someone being killed or wounded by an American in our country.  And the vast majority of those killed and/or wounded are innocent bystanders.  The numbers can be found, easily; and they are overwhelming.  They scare me, and I'm a life-long citizen.
   Death is a terribly final thing.  We, as American citizens, must put an end to our country's increasing gun violence.  Soon, there will be only one person left standing, and they will have in their hand, a smoking gun.....

Baltimore

Gee, I feel like I'm a kid again - and not in a good way.  Besides idyllic times on Chincoteague and Assateague Islands during the summers, I can easily recall the Cuban Missile Crisis and being taught to crawl under desks or tables and cover our heads if we heard the missile warning;  I remember seeing my Father cry watching the news of President Kennedy's assassination; I can remember my parents taking mys sister and me to Civil Rights marches and activities; I remember the march in Selma and how profoundly upset my parents were, and them explaining why they were upset to me; I remember all the protests that followed Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, and I remember hearing news of his assassination; I remember the rioting across the nation following Dr. King's death - and the violence in Baltimore at that time; and I remember the assassination of Bobby Kennedy, and how deeply shaken my entire family was by what seemed to be a one-two punch: first Martin, then Bobby.  The world seemed about to break apart, and I was frightened.
  Flash forward about fifty years.  Today I am looking at rioting, again, in Baltimore, Maryland.  I always try to think of Baltimore as a happy place - the place where my parents spent their honeymoon back in 1948.  For me, Baltimore has always meant the Chesapeake Bay, boats, seafood, sailing, and shipping; now it's yet another city disrupted by racism.  Things have been rocky for some time, and I know it started long before the media was shining a spotlight on it - but it seems the list of men killed (African-American, Hispanic, white and other races) continues to grow without ceasing.  My mind immediately pulls up the names of Rodney King, Trayvon Martin, Timothy Thomas, Michael Brown, Joel Acevedo, Sean Bell, Eric Garner, Walter Scott and, now, Freddie Gray. Unarmed men, beaten and/or killed by law enforcement officers.  What is happening in our country?
  Less than two hours after the funeral of Freddie Gray, the latest victim of law enforcement officials, people were rioting in the streets of Baltimore.  Even though this young man's family was aasking for peaceful protests, if any, a few people got that adrenaline rush and decided to "push back" against authority.  I can easily understand marching and protesting with chanting and signs, I can easily understand a silent sit-in to commemorate the loss of life, I can easily understand getting upset over a huge and long-standing failure of care for those in custody.  But I cannot understand a mob mentality; I cannot understand attacking a CVS Pharmacy, breaking all the glass out of the building, stealing all the merchandise, and setting the business on fire.  The owners and employees there were not responsible for the death of Freddie Gray.  The Community Center next to a church that went up in a three-alarm blaze had nothing to do with the death of Freddie Gray.  Folks who's cars were torched on the street had nothing to do with the death of Freddie Gray. - Then, again, perhaps all of us, who sit back and watch these things happen, are, in part, responsible.  We haven't made our voices heard regarding the inequity between the races.
   I live in Boulder, Colorado.  My best friend here is African-American.  She is a part of the 1% of African-Americans who actually live in Boulder.  I don't have children of my own, but I have my husband's children from his previous marriages, and I'm happy and proud to say that two of those three kids fell in love with, and married, an African-American.  Skin color, eye color, hair color - any type of color of anything - should never make a difference in how a person regards another.  That is just plain stupid.
   I feel for the victims and the families of the victims of these crazy shootings, beatings, and deaths.  They each need to be thoroughly investigated, and punishments for those who did wrong - including any law enforcement officials - need to be meted out.  Unfortunately, none of these men can be restored to their lives.  No one knows how each of these persons might have changed the world - for the better, or for the worse.  I only know that there is no price tag attached to a human life.  Each and every life is priceless.  None of the above named men needed to die.  I can understand the anger - but anger must be controlled and used to make specific decisions; hopefully, those decisions will help change laws and procedures for the good.

The Pope; Reality

So, Pope Benedict XVI is resigning from his elected position as the leader of the Roman Catholic church. Joseph Ratzinger is, after all, 85 years old, and has health problems. Being the leader and figure-head of such a large and complex political and religious machine must be extremely wearing on one's mind, heart, and soul. He feels he can no longer shoulder the burden of the world, and I believe, that since he feels and thinks that way, his resignation is a good thing. I did have to laugh when I saw a news story that asked if the Pope could, actually, resign...
  A wild and varied bunch of news headlines today, besides the Pope's resignation - a cruise ship adrift in the Caribbean, near the Yucatan , after an engine fire; shootings on Bourbon Street in New Orleans; shootings in a Wilmington, Delaware bank. It seems so unreal to me. - I mean, I grew up watching Western movies and TV shows, and I've seen plenty of action-adventure-thriller movies with explosions and gun fights galore - but I don't want to go out and shoot anyone. I admit openly that I love Bruce Willis in the role of John McClane in the Die Hard movie series, and I love Clint Eastwood in his Man-With-No-Name westerns and his "Dirty" Harry Callahan movies. It's nice to see the good guys win every once in a while, even if they don't do it "by the book" and the laws of our nation. .... But, this is fiction. It is actors and acting under the direction of others. It is not true life. It is escapism.... I'm beginning to wonder if the majority of young people today can actually tell the difference between reality and their fantasy worlds.

The Hobbit

What is happening? Another woman was shot and killed early this morning in Aurora (part of the Denver metro area). And a few miles to the northwest, in Lyons, a woman's pet miniature donkey was killed by two shots from a high-powered rifle. The sheriff's office has looked at sight-lines and said the shots that killed Kaitlyn came from one of two possible points, from a hillside above the donkeys' nine acre pasture. Tucker, Kaitlyn's brother was not harmed in the attack; but as he has always had his sister for company since birth, he too, is bereft. I simply cannot understand the need to kill someone or something with a gun - to save yourself, yes. To put food on the table, yes. But wantonly shooting human beings and defenseless pets is the absolute lowest depth that a person can sink to. It's just plain old sick; and that person needs to be imprisoned for life and/or put down themselves. Sick. Just sick.

   It's a beautiful day out - the sky is a fantastic shade of blue, with just a few high clouds, the sun is shining, and it's already 50 degrees. The kits let me sleep in today, and I didn't crawl out of bed until 8:30 this morning... Since then, I've showered, fed and medicated myself, fed the kits, let them out, cleaned their litter boxes, fed the birds and the squirrels, read the news, and checked my e-mail. Once again, I'm playing the '60s Revolution music channel as background, but it is almost drowned out by the raucous cries of the ravens in the back yard. Either they believe they deserve more to eat, or Nedi and they are playing. I might take my reading chair out onto the patio and relax for a while in the sun, myself.

   Today and for the weekend, the Native American Expo is taking place in Denver, and the Stock Show still has 10 days left to run. When I saw The Hobbit yesterday, I found that walking two and a half blocks is just about my top capacity at the moment. I was exhausted after walking there, and then was very happy to sit in the dark, put my feet up, and watch the movie. It was pretty good. It didn't follow the book precisely, but it was OK and didn't change too many things too radically. I've been in love with Fili and Kili and Thorin Oakenshield for the past 41 years, and yesterday, I had to add Bofur to the list. Of course, I loved Bombur just because he was so nice to Bilbo from the outset... and his portrayal in the movie is genius. The movie certainly fleshed out Radagast the Brown, and I really enjoyed him, as well. The trolls were nicely creepy and gross; and, of course, Gollum was ... well, Gollum. Now I have to wait a year to see Beorn and Bard... hmmmmmmmm....