The Phoenix, Arizona Freeway Shootings took place in the summer of 2015. Between August 27th and September 10th there were eleven incidents that occurred on Interstate 10. I remember reading about it in the newspaper and watching it on the evening news as the days passed and the number climbed.
There were images of every day, ordinary bumper to bumper, rush hour traffic. I wondered why people were still driving on the freeway submitting themselves to possible danger. At the same time I believed it sent a message. Something along the lines of, This is our city and you’re no match for the wrath of our traffic.
My husband was still at work last night when I called. He was standing in front of a television watching the aftermath of the Parkland school shooting.
Sickening, he said to me.
I wanted to tell him to walk away from the television, get in the car and drive home but I knew home would be no escape from the news. This has become the standard norm in the United States. This is our culture. With 18 school shootings as of January 1, 2018 we’re averaging a school shooting where students are injured or killed every 2.5 days.
We live in Small Town, Iowa. The purpose of the town is to support the livelihood of the farms surrounding the area. This year the school began locking its doors. The first time I rang the doorbell I was cattle lined through the main office before I was permitted to enter the area of the school where classrooms are located.
I thought this was unnecessary. I mean, what’s going to happen all the way out in the middle of cornfields? No one is going to barge in here and shoot up the school. Then it occurred to me, what if the danger weren’t someone barging in and the locked door system provided zero protection from all possibilities? What if the danger were already inside the school? What if it were a student, teacher or staff member?
As a parent, as a human being I’m disgusted with the reality of these scenarios. My child deserves an education and I deserve to send my child to school without experiencing daily fear of the worst possible scenario.
This morning I received these words via email from a friend, Pissed about the school shooting aftermath on the radio, NRA nuts already out there blaming anyone other than their toys. 18 school shootings in the first 46 days of this year. I wish parents would boycott schools across the nation until some comprehensive gun control regulations are made into law.
Boycott.
I live in a country where we will never find resolve, we will never agree and we will never be safe. We allow the government to distract us with their own petty issues, inconsistencies and their inability for unity opposed to resolving the issues of the American people, opposed to protecting, empowering and supporting the American people.
I live in a country where a culturally incompetent, narcissistic, uneducated and misinformed, abusive ass-hat was voted into the highest seat of government. When I hear, Make America great again I hear, It’s safe to send your child to school. I’ve been lied to. Every parent in America has been lied to. Every American has been lied to.
The federal government has limited education laws and requires state and local governments to take lead responsibility when it comes to schools but the federal government holds the power to enforce firearm regulations and restrictions.
In a great America all levels of government should be working together and acting with a heavy foot. It’s clear the maximum five year prison sentence set in place for violating the federal law against firearms in a school zone is not a steep enough consequence to be considered a deterrent or prevention.
As the media fills us with rage the House of Representatives fill us with silence.
When we send our children to school we send the message that this is acceptable. Nothing changes. It’s not changing. We could have this conversation until our lungs exhaust all oxygen. It’s time to stop talking and start acting.
As a parent it’s my right to protect my child. As a parent it’s my right to choose his safety above all else. As a parent it’s my right to demand we do better. As a parent it’s my right to take a stand and say no more, I will not allow this to happen anymore.
Stop sending your child to school until our law makers, both state and federal step up and deal with the issue. Use your voice. Say it LOUD. In unity our voices can be heard all across the nation.
Hug you’re child when they get home today, educate them, keep them safe. As parents it’s our responsibility.
There’s been 291 school shootings, an average of 73 per year since 2013.
