I am CuTRis

I guess people are trying to find the appropriate response, which is that no one should get assassinated for political dialogue. However, it almost feels too late for that, and it all goes back to the President and his supporters, who have been preaching violence since way back when Donald Trump was suggesting that Hillary Clinton should be assassinated in 2016. So you can't fault the people who now see the connection between the rhetoric and the actions of a sick country.

This morning, on the news, they reported a need for school resource officers. That struck me as interesting, because a few years ago, there was anger, and people wanted those officers removed from schools. This is proof that dumb exists on both the political left and the political right. A few years ago, George Floyd was in the news and now it's the Annunciation school shooting. Narrow views produce narrow results.

Saying that "prayer is not enough," when children get shot at school, is NOT being, "anti-prayer." It IS being "anti-do-nothing," like those who value living children less than they value guns (or unborn children). It's time to call-out the hypocrisy.

Waking up to the news of two Minnesota politicians and their spouses, all Democrats, being shot in the middle of the night by an assassin dressed as a police officer, has me thinking that the assault on democracy is still progressing- even in light of the "no Kings" protests today. Please remain defiant, and be safe. Obviously, things are very volatile right now. For the past few weeks, I've had a steady stream of 1960s protest music playing inside my head with good reason. It is extremely sad that things have progressed to this point. Or perhaps, I should say regressed.

In my dream I'm packing. It's reminiscent of my time in Boy Scouts packing for camping trips. Only I'm packing for war. I think it's Vietnam. That was the war when I was a little kid. That was what I thought was going to happen when I grew up. It's funny, we don't think about it that much anymore, but Vietnam changed our lives as sure as covid-19. Even my immediate family was indirectly created by that war. My wife's family fled from Laos when she was a small child. Many years later, we met and got married and had our son. But why do I still dream of that fate that never transpired? Why do I still dream about going to war? I suppose it could be that there is a war in the news all the time. Plus, there is a war in our streets as mass shootings have outnumbered the days of the year. There is a war in our government, in our politics, and an attempt to take over our democracy. There are the continued excuses about guns not killing people, that people are killing...

It is terrorism to shoot schoolchildren. It is the extreme of cowardice. For it to continue as it has year after year, shows a lack of (real) concern for our most valuable and most vulnerable citizens. I'm tired of the excuses, because there is no excuse.

I'm not sure that this will ever sink in for those people who love their guns more than life itself. Perhaps if they had to witness the bloody aftermath that those who were first on the scene now have emblazoned into their memories... I'm not sure that would help, but it might be a good place to start. It's too easy to fall back on the stale excuse of taking away the "rights of the good people." If you actually had to witness a class full of elementary school students being gunned down, I think that might change some minds... If it wouldn't, then those people have lost all sense of what is good.

I'd like to send a message to my conservative Republican friends. You know who you are. If you could refrain from posting pictures of "beautiful 20-week-old, unborn children," then I won't have to post photos of 9 and 10-year-old children who are dead and full of holes from an AR-15 Assault Rifle. Your desire to protect the unborn, is overshadowed by your desire for guns that kill the living. Thanks for your understanding.

Seven years ago a guy having a road rage attack, chased my car for several miles while pointing a gun at me. Had I pulled into a dead-end alley rather than a police station parking lot, I might be dead. When the police caught up to the guy, they found the Glock 9mm I had described on the seat of the truck. It had a high-capacity clip. There was also a filet knife in the door of his truck. He told the officer that I was (his words written in the police report) a "raghead from Pakistan." He also had a small amount of marijuana. They released him because he had a permit to carry a gun; and he said he never pulled the gun out. Last year I needed to see a medical specialist. It took two months to get in. After a scan, it took two more months to get in for the follow-up. Fortunately, the doctor said I was okay. But it took four months to find that out. I've been told that we can't have national health insurance in the U.S. because in countries where they do have it, it tak...

Here in the USA, children are important before they're born. Once they are breathing and alive, guns are more important than they are. Does anyone see how incredibly illogical and dysfunctional our society has become?

If you look at a city like Minneapolis objectively, there are shootings daily. People are shot and shot to death at an alarming rate. That means law enforcement is reacting to these violent crimes daily. If you research the statistics, when it's not being obscured by the media, most of the victims are black lives. Most of the arrested shooters are as well. When you think of the hundreds of cases handled by the police, and the relatively few mistakes, it begins to show that the number of people killed by police, is a small number in comparison to the number being killed by gun violence every single day. Yet, the media, and certain groups have skillfully turned our attention to the few tragic deaths of individuals at the hands of police; and deflected the reality of daily killings by criminals, to back page news to be ignored because it doesn't bring the masses out to demonstrate their rage. In fact, if a child or innocent person is killed, few people mourn. It's only when ...

A lot of time and effort is going into reforming police. Today, a school bus driver was shot in the head in Minneapolis. Perhaps more time and effort should be spent on the reason police are out pursuing criminals--like why are people shooting each other and also killing and maiming innocent bystanders in the city and streets? Police reform is a byproduct... an effort to fix a symptom of the true problem. It's easy to yell and scream about police brutality, but that doesn't address the crime that necessitates the reason police are deployed in the first place. If you can fix the crime problem, the police won't even be needed. It was a while ago, but when I grew up in Richfield, and bought my first house in Minneapolis (both have had shootings already this month), there wasn't continuous shootings like there is now. So ask yourself, what has changed? If we focus on the cause of the dysfunction rather than reacting to the results, perhaps real solutions are possible. Be...

Three children have been shot in Minneapolis in three weeks. 185 people have been shot in Minneapolis in (almost) five months. White police were not responsible for this. On May 2, 2021, in St. Paul, 173 shots were fired in a 3-hour span, injuring seven people. It might be a good time to address the real issue. At least if we want to be truthful that these shootings are unacceptable.

Imagine living in a world where guns are valued more than children. Where the news media only tells half the story. Where the truth is made up by whoever is loudest. Where the biggest criminals are set up as the biggest victims. Where everything is made into race whether it is or not. Where good and bad are judged by politics and not by individual circumstances. Where violence is sanctioned in entertainment and on the streets in real life. And where people are afraid to speak the truth for fear of the backlash. Then you will know what our society has become.