In Donald John Trump's never ending campaign to demonize all Hispanic immigrants he loves to talk about the presence of the gang, Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13 on Long Island, NY. As late as Wednesday he described them this way: "...a ruthless gang that has violated our borders and transformed once peaceful neighborhoods into blood stained killing fields."
No, I'm not here to defend MS-13, or its criminal and sometimes deadly activities. I am, however, questioning what constitutes a blood stained killing field, in Don Trump's over ripe brain. Apparently not that much since research by The Daily Caller shows the gang was involved in four Long Island killings in the past 12 months.
That would be 13 fewer victims of murder than was amassed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, FL on a single February day this year.
Across the globe in Afghanistan which is--you know--a fucking war zone, 17 U.S. troops were killed in combat operations during 2017. That's 14 fewer than the number of students and teachers killed in American schools since January this year. In Iraq, during 2017, 23 fewer American service men and women were killed than people going to places that issue grades in stuff like math.
The New York Times ran a list of this testimony to American exceptionalism immediately after the shooting at Santa Fe High School in Texas. To keep things as simple as possible they threw out any shootings which occurred on, or near school properties without casualties, wounded, or otherwise. They also didn't count, "several," that involved people committing suicide on campuses.
What they found was, beginning with January 22nd this year in Italy, TX there have been 10 school shootings spread out from Kentucky to California that have either killed, or wounded students and teachers.
After the Santa Fe horror, MSNBC played to liberal fears by claiming the total was over 20. FOX attempted to reassure its many times delusional audience by claiming there had only been five.
Whatever the number, we do know for sure 31 human beings have been murdered in American public schools and at least 49 have been wounded so far in the year of our Lord, 2018. Most of them have been teenagers. All of them were shot, not while facing a platoon of enemy combatants, but because they didn't play hooky the day some loon went off his nut with an easily obtained weapon.
Even though Donald J. Trump has never referred to American schools as blood stained killing fields, he swore he'd do something after the massacre in Parkland. Then, literally a day after making that promise he had lunch with some NRA executives and decided doing nothing instead was the more advantageous political strategy. Most members of congress, especially those in the house, live in such fear of NRA retribution they won't even utter a whisper about some sort of common sense gun control.
As for the NRA, well, we all know what they think--everyone, including my four year old grandson should be carrying a gun, "for self defense." That mandate also includes guys like Alex Tilghman, who posted a YouTube video of demonic ducks tormenting him just yards from the OKC restaurant he shot up a few days later.
No other industrialized country on this blue ball puts up with this crazed shit. And correspondingly no other industrialized country has to seriously consider turning its schools into the type of armed fortresses not seen since the age of Vietnam fire bases.
Yes, we may be free, but we're also the only place on earth where you can end up with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, not induced by intense overseas combat, but from simply attending Mrs. Tisdale's art class on the wrong Friday.
Given these circumstances, this Memorial Day we might want to consider not just remembering our war dead, but those killed in our schools as well. Hey, why not? As the stats show, the cemeteries are currently filling up with kids who attend class more quickly than they are with members of the military deployed in combat areas.
sic vita est
5-28-18
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