From the Attic

Protecting our kids, better ways to spend billions, truth is dead and a fan's lament

By Jim LaJoie

Uncluttering the mind’s attic……

Why are we not protecting our kids?

As of September 9, 2024, the latest school shooting, this time at Apalachee High School in Georgia, it was the 218th time this year in the United States that a gun “was fired or brandished,” in a school, according to a CBS report (https://www.cbsnews.com/news/how-many-school-shootings-2024-apalachee-winder-georgia/). I needed to begin this paragraph with the date, knowing that by the time this posts there may very well be another. 

There have been so many school shootings that gun-related incidents become a blur. Sandy Hook becomes Parkland becomes Oxford (MI) becomes Uvalde becomes Apalachee, becomes another and another. Even the most compassionate among us begin to accept that we will hear more and become hardened to it. We become less shocked after each incident, less motivated to action, more accepting of the inevitability of another horror. We become less human in the face of the onslaught. At this point, a national, collective resignation of this as a recurring part of our lives has inflicted us all.

I wonder how a nation that helped win two world wars, went to space, has been a leader in technology, built a global power, become one of the greatest civilizations in human history, can’t stop our kids from getting killed or injured by guns in schools across America. Even the luckiest student, who ultimately graduates without having to run in terror from their school, still must live under the constant emotional toll of it as a possibility. We have done, and continue to do, a terrible injustice to our younger generations.  

I don’t want to get into any arguments about the limits of the Second Amendment nor advocating its abolishment. I am, however, in favor of sensible gun laws that would enable our kids, the future of this country, not to have to live under a state of terror for attending school. I am not alone, according to the Pew Research Center, nearly six-out-of-ten Americans support stricter gun controls Pew Research.

Stricter gun laws hasn’t happened because it is politically divisive in a hyper-partisan era where compromise is viewed as a moral failing. It also hasn’t happened because there is a whole lot of money to be made by selling as many guns to as many Americans as possible. Even if it means some family’s child, or children, won’t be returning home that day because of the most recent day of horror.

greybeard Journal

I can think of a way to better spend $10-16 billion

According to Forbes, the amount of money spent on election ads in this year’s presidential election may exceed $10 billion (https://www.forbes.com/sites/anafaguy/2023/09/12/more-than-10-billion-could-be-spent-on-2024-election-ads-which-would-make-it-the-costliest-cycle-ever/).

Think about that for a second.

I have seen at least one estimate that it could be as high as $15.9 billion. Ten to 16 billion dollars for ultimately electing a president. Most of this money is not from individuals giving $10 or $25 dollars. No, most of it is coming from those monied enough to give millions of dollars, wealthy individuals, political action committees, large corporations, special interest groups. As a result, no matter who wins this election, he or she will not truly give a damn about the average American. Our current political system is designed to tip the scales in favor of the wealthiest at the expense of the rest. 

Imagine, for a moment, as an admittedly ridiculous and naive notion, that money could be used for the betterment of this country, if $10-16 billion were spent on things like infrastructure, education, lowering the cost of healthcare, new technologies, bringing high-speed internet capability to rural areas, or a hundred other uses that would improve the lives of average Americans. Ten to 16 billion dollars. It is a figure that is difficult to understand. It is also a symptom of our current political disease. 

Truth, honesty and factual accuracy are victims of today’s culture

There was a time when being truthful, honest and dealing only in factual data was required, or at least strongly encouraged in the public forum. In fact, not living by this standard hurt your credibility in the public’s eye. That standard, unfortunately, has morphed into a public cesspool of word vomit filled with outright falsehoods, conspiracy theories, histrionic labeling of opponents, juvenile insults and playing to the lowest common denominator. Our public forum has fallen to the level of hormone-raging preteens, but without the proper adult supervision. Respectful discourse is mocked, facts are derided as “fake news” if not fitting neatly into one’s hardened - and quite likely misguided and misinformed - opinion, and pulling whatever you want out of your ass that emboldens “your side” and reduces “the other side” is taken as gospel. We can do better. I am growing increasingly pessimistic we will.

One fan’s lament

My beloved Boston Red Sox will again not make the playoffs. A team that has won more World Series in the 2000s than any other in Major League Baseball has been reduced to mediocrity and irrelevancy, the result of an ownership that no longer gives a damn about the product on the field. I still do, despite my better sense.

About the author: The author is feeling a bit grumpy these days due to circumstances beyond his control.