Parkland Florida School Massacre

Ron DeSantis Is A Right Wing Threat, Undermining Basic Human Rights, Education, Health Care, And Harming Public Safety!

Ronald 4 Comments

Florida, the state I have lived in for 34 years, since 1989, has become a right wing threat under Governor Ron DeSantis.

DeSantis has banned an elective African American Studies Advanced Placement Course in Florida High Schools, claiming it has no educational value.

DeSantis has fired an elected Prosecutor, Hillsborough County State Attorney Andrew Warren, for publicly disagreeing with the governor’s stand on abortion rights and transgender health care.

DeSantis has cracked down on the Disney Company and its control of its properties in Central Florida, because they disagree with his policies and actions.

DeSantis is planning to promote a policy of guns “open carry”, without any permit or training or licensing, in all public places, which will insure mass murder incidents occurring ever more as happened at the Parkland Florida School Massacre in 2018 and the Orlando Florida “Pulse” Massacre in 2015.

DeSantis is banning books in public schools and libraries, and threatening prosecution for teachers or librarians who defy him. This is censorship, totally against American democratic values, but it will not stop students from inquiry about all kinds of issues, but has the effect of intimidation.

DeSantis has as Florida State Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo who is undermining protection for seniors or children or anyone else with the COVID 19 Pandemic, as he works with DeSantis on banning of masks and vaccinations as Florida policy.

DeSantis has fired school board members in several counties, and appointed Republican replacements that are dictating policies and curriculums in local schools.

DeSantis has set out to destroy the New College of Florida, in Sarasota, a liberal university which has received great honors and reputation. He has put a right wing extremist onto its board, and the President of the university has been fired, and the plan is to fire faculty members who do not fit the version of DeSantis regarding what is proper education.

DeSantis has interfered with college professors at Florida state universities, dictating what can be expressed in classes and put into class syllabi, and working to end tenure rights.

DeSantis has banned any protection or safety for gay and transgender children, which will promote suicides, as his puritan view of sexuality permeates the state of Florida.

DeSantis has declared war on empathy, decency, compassion, and is more concerned about so called “guilt” that white students might feel, totally preposterous, and at the same time, having no concern about the effect on students of color.

DeSantis’s war on abortion rights is also taking away a woman’s control over her body, putting Florida into the crosshairs of right wing control by an authoritarian minded man who wants to be President of the United States.

DeSantis also formed a political stunt about immigration, shipping Venezuelan migrants to Martha’s Vineyard, promoting his nativism agenda.

DeSantis has declared war on people of color; science and medicine; education and libraries; gays, lesbians and transgender individuals; women’s rights over their own bodies; elected officials who defy him; corporations who disagree with his views; immigrants; and he has shown no concern about public safety from unstable individuals who will have license to kill innocent citizens with firearms.

DeSantis is promoting intolerance, hatred, division, and destroying the reputation of Florida, at a time when the cost of living is high and housing prices are out of sight; the state is trying to recover from Hurricane Ian; and the public health threat from COVID 19 is still killing Floridians every day.

And since he did not react to recent examples of antisemitism displayed by White Supremacists and Neo Nazis, that is another great concern.

But his lust for power is unchecked, and he must be challenged and stopped, before he becomes an ever greater threat to the nation and the world beyond just the state of Florida.

All decent, humane people must rise up and resist, even as DeSantis had a law passed barring demonstrations that might block traffic, so one can expect the possibility of the use of police forces to crack down on the freedom of assembly.

This is not a time to sit on the sidelines, as what is happening in Florida could become the future of the entire nation, if Ron DeSantis was to go on and to win the Presidential Election of 2024!

Ten Years Since Tragic Sandy Hook Massacre, And Lack Of Action On Guns!

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It has been ten years since the horrific massacre of 20 children and 6 teachers and administrators at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, and there has been a total lack of action on gun regulation.

The National Rifle Association and most Republicans in Congress and the state governments have refused to take ownership of the need for gun regulation, and the banning of AK-47 and AR-15 firearms, as only needed for hunting and the military.

The horrors of what happens to victims of gun violence by use of such firearms has not made those involved in the firearms industry, and those who are financially supported by that industry, to have a conscience!

So we have had many more school and college tragedies, most notably the Parkland, Florida Massacre on Valentine’s Day 2018 at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Broward County, Florida, sadly besmirching the name of the legendary environmental activist that the school is named after!

And of course, there have been unbelievable numbers of other massacres in places of worship, supermarkets, concerts, and many other public venues!

A special salute to Connecticut Democratic Senator Chris Murphy who has been a true hero in working to attempt major reforms, sadly to no avail!

How anyone who has turned away from their conscience in the reality of gun violence everywhere, making America the most violent society in the civilized world by far, is unfathomable, but the struggle must go on!

Gun Massacres Keep On Raising Death Count, And Senate Does Nothing!

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America is in the midst of another Gun Massacre Crisis, and the death count is rising, and the US Senate does nothing!

The US Senate has become the burial grounds of any hope to protect Americans from gun violence, and it has twice happened in the last week, in Atlanta, Georgia and Boulder, Colorado.

But it has also happened in the Sandy Hook Massacre of 2012 in Connecticut; in the Parkland, Florida Massacre in 2018; in the Charleston Church Massacre in South Carolina in 2015; in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Synagogue Massacre in 2018; the Orlando, Florida gay nightclub shooting in 2016; and the list goes on and on and on!

Only America has this level of gun violence, and no ability to pass ANY legislation to regulate sales or prevent combat weapons from being sold, which is only designed to cause mass loss of life by crazed gunmen!

This is exasperating, and somehow, there has to be an epiphany, so that America is not the only nation that allows mass killing of their own citizens!

Seditionist Republicans Are A Threat To Civil Order, And Kevin McCarthy Is A Disaster As Leader In House Of Representatives!

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Seditionist Republicans in the House of Representatives are a threat to civil order, and House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy of California is a disaster as their leader!

And yet, McCarthy could end up as House Speaker in 2023, if the Republicans were to win control the House of Representatives in the midterm elections of 2022.

McCarthy voted against acceptance of the Electoral College vote on January 6, and has now visited Donald Trump in Mar A Lago; appointed Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia to the House Education Committee, despite her ridicule of disabled people and denial that the Parkland Florida Massacre of 2018 and the Sandy Hook Massacre of 2012 occurred, and also threatened the lives of Nancy Pelosi, Barack Obama, and Hillary Clinton, and so many more outrageous utterances; and is working behind the scenes to force third ranking House Republican leader Liz Cheney out of leadership!

Those who work for the Congress of the United States are living in fear of bloodshed and violence occurring again, and are terrified at some of the crazy, loony House members, who insist on carrying guns into the Capitol complex, and refuse to go through metal detectors.

The National Young People’s March On Washington For Gun Reform: An Inspiration To All Decent People, And A Warning To Those In Power!

Ronald 7 Comments

Today, we are witnessing a massive March on Washington, “A March For Our Lives”, estimated at 500,000 people, and in 800 locations around America, and even in other nations, by young people and their supporters, demanding gun reform after the tragic Parkland Massacre in south Florida, which led to the deaths of 14 students and three teachers by a mentally ill young man who had assault weapons designed for war as he conducted his massacre in just six minutes.

Over 187,000 students have been in the line of fire from school shootings since the Columbine, Colorado Massacre in April 1999. And an estimated 33,000 victims of gun deaths anywhere in America occur every year.

We have seen great courage and conviction by the young survivors of this massacre, and it gives hope and confidence in the future of America, that we are witnessing the commitment of young people both at that high school and all around America to bringing about essential change. And their parents and families and many others are joining them in this struggle against inertia.

We are shocked at the lack of action by Congress and President Trump, and we have a future generation of leaders being created by the refusal of our government to overcome the power and money of the National Rifle Association and other powerful interest groups that control our government, and ignore the needs and desires of the American people.

The goal has to be to kick out of office as many of the “traitors” to the American people who do not give a whit about what happens to young Americans in their schools and to all Americans in other public places.

A political revolution against the cancer now existing in our government is a revolution that will triumph, as many of the older generation of politicians, in office only for their own personal ends, shall be repudiated in midterm and later elections by massive participation by the future generation reaching 18 in 2018 or soon after.