Today is Mary Oliver’s birthday, and I am not writing a news story. I am here for a chat, going old school, back to blogging on this here old blog, and writing like I am talking to you over coffee in my kitchen.
To quote Mary Oliver, “Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”
Let’s have that coffee.
::
A week ago — just one week — a 14 year old boy brought a firearm to school and shot his classmates and teachers. His father bought him the gun for Christmas last year after law enforcement had been to their house and questioned online threats the boy had made.
There were screenshots of text message exchanges between scared children and their parents. There was the teacher who said a potential shooting was why she had a couch in her classroom for kids to hide behind. There were the kids who described trying to save their teacher has the teacher bled to death and the kids with law enforcement, the ones there to save them, describing what it felt like to have the police point guns at them to prove they did not have guns and then, on shaky legs, had to walk out of their school with their hands in the air.
One week, and this story is no longer news.
What am I doing with my one wild and precious life?
Saturday was our 28th wedding anniversary. I spent the day writing and factchecking and re-factchecking a news column about a preacher/lobbyist and an upcoming constitutional amendment. Then we went out to dinner. Here’s to us, to 28 years.
When we left the restaurant, there were news alerts of a sniper shooting at cars from a perch on I-75 in or around Laurel County, Kentucky, which is not near us. Traffic was at a standstill. Many law enforcement agencies were on the scene. A 32 year old white man had purchased an AR-style weapon and 1,000 rounds of ammunition the same day.
Today is Tuesday. Police have found the man’s car and his gun, but the man remains at large in a heavily wooded, expansive area. Law enforcement agencies continue their search. The community is still on alert. Schools in the area remain closed.
When asked about this situation at an event on Monday, KY House Speaker David Osborne said the following: “We have to do more to address the root cause of these issues, which is mental illness. We’ve done a lot, we’re doing a lot, but clearly, we’re not doing enough,” and “It’s always a conversation” … “We’re always looking for ways to close loopholes and things like that.”
There is nothing our legislature can do to keep a mentally disturbed man from the same-day-purchase of an automatic weapon and 1,000 rounds?
Let us call Speaker Osborne’s impotent comments what they are: lies.
This year, during the 2024 General Assembly, there were bills for safe storage of firearms and the CARR bill (SB13) filed by one of his own Republican colleagues to prevent mentally unstable people from making such a purchase. House and Senate leadership buried these bills in the Veterans and Military Affairs committee so they were never even heard.
Tell me where “It’s always a conversation” … “We’re always looking for ways to close loopholes and things like that” jives with reality?
If there were followup questions from the reporter, it was not noted.
And this is how we continue to do absolutely nothing, including holding powerful lawmakers to account. They know they will never been pressured by the public or the press to answer for their lack of action.
I used to wonder how these guys sleep at night, but I’ve done this long enough to believe they sleep just fine. So long as they keep their seat in the legislature and everyone bows to the buttons on their lapels as they pass, they’re getting the 8 hours a night that the people in Laurel County or down in Georgia near the school shooting are not getting, and they seem to be just fine with that.
Another news org asked KY Rep. Savannah Maddox for her thoughts on the situation. Reporters always get a quote — though they know exactly what she will say — from Maddox because hey, you gotta both-sides it.
Here’s the Maddox quote: “We know that things like waiting periods, in addition to creating an additional barrier for law-abiding citizens to exercise their Second Amendment rights, there is no evidence that they reduce crime or suicides or anything of that nature. So the evidence is not there. But even if it were, we have to uphold the Constitution.”
This isn’t true, but no matter. Maddox could give this meaningless quote in her sleep.
And again, where are the follow up questions begging to be asked? It’s like we have all become robots when it comes to talking about guns. God forbid we would have tense exchanges or upset someone in power or lose access to a lawmaker who can give us a quote when we’re on deadline.
The Kentucky sniper remains at large. No one is even talking anymore about the Georgia school shooting. Let’s pour ourselves another cup of coffee and sit here until it happens again.
This is what we are doing with our wild and precious lives. Happy birthday, Mary Oliver.
--30--
Comments
