Texas: A State of Shame
24/05/23 09:52
May 24, 2023 (Vol. 17 No. 24) - It has been one year since the horrific shootings in Uvalde, Texas, in which 19 children and two teachers were murdered by an automatic weapon-wielding maniac while local police stood by. The tragedy has been compounded by local, state and federal officials who continue to do nothing about the proliferation of weapons of mass murder. As I have said before, the Second Amendment is not a hunting license. And yet, that's exactly how the Congress, the Texas legislature and the state's authoritarian governor treats it. Adding to the misery of the families of the victims, the investigation into what happened has been slow, secretive and incomplete. Everyone seems to be in a state of CYA. Their inaction borders on criminality. You can't help but wonder what the heck the people of Texas are thinking. As I discuss in my historical fiction novel Thirteen Minutes: Death of an American High School, the birth of the "American Madman With A Gun" was the Texas Tower in Austin in 1966. There have been additional mass shootings in the Lone Star State since Uvalde, in Cleveland and Allen. Governor Greg Abbott had the temerity to call the victims of the Cleveland shooting "illegal immigrants" - focusing on his immoral and un-Christian-like political agenda while failing to show empathy for the innocent victims. Perhaps we should be turning our "thoughts and prayers" toward a political and social awakening in the sorry state of Texas. (Save a few for the leaders in the sorry state of Florida while you are at it.) Texans would have you believe that they live in a special place. In fact, they live in a state of shame. That's it for now. Fear the Turtle.