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3Hotdogs

(13,305 posts)
Sun Sep 8, 2024, 11:26 PM Sep 8

Mass Killings --- nothin's gonna change until ...... There is disruption.

As Obama said, he thought Sandy Hook would be "the straw." Nope. Didn't happen.

So here we are, week after week, month after month, year after year. And nothing changes, nor will it change until people get pissed off enough to lead some kind of disruption. It might be planned. It might be spontaneous. But that is what needs to happen.


Teachers: Teachers are most likely to be affected by gun violence. Yet they do nothing about it except participate in lock-down drills. When I was a teacher on a negotiating committee, an administrator described us as a docile group. "You're not gonna strike." Look up teachers' strike... Jersey City, 2000. That strike put pressure on my district's Board of Ed. to negotiate a fair contract.

Teachers in Oklahoma have grown a pair. They are refusing to follow the state superintendent's directive to teach the Bible in their classrooms. They will violate a direct order for a principle of honor. Do you think they would walk out of their classroom to save their students' lives? Maybe by participating on a national day of mourning by walking out of schools?

How about two days of mourning on 2025? Three days in 2026.

Yeah, I know. It is important that students get their education. But dead kids don't learn anything. And dead teachers can't teach anymore.


Or maybe it's not teachers who will find a way to disrupt such as puts pressure on Congress to initiate a change in the Constitution.

What is your suggestion? My point is that what we are doing, or not doing now, is as useless as thoughts and prayers.


Don't bother to tell me that you think I am an asshole, or whatever. I know I am. .... Instead, give me your plan for what to do.

11 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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Silent Type

(6,103 posts)
1. It's extremely disappointing to me too that something hasn't been done. But it's going to
Sun Sep 8, 2024, 11:34 PM
Sep 8

take a long political fight. While that’s going on, several hundred million more guns are manufactured, advertised as one’s key to manhood or needed in the coming unrest, etc.

ramapo

(4,719 posts)
2. I have no friggin' idea
Sun Sep 8, 2024, 11:38 PM
Sep 8

People basically don't give a shit until it's their kids' school that gets shot up... and even then life goes on.

I grew up with air raid drills and the threat of nuclear war. Of course that threat remains but that's another story.

I read about lock-down and active shooter drills. I read about turning our schools into armed fortresses. Everyone seems just fine with the status quo.

Nothing changes until enough people get pissed off enough to either vote the useless assholes out of office or have sustained mass demonstrations (aka Vietnam) that force action. Mass demonstrations aren't going to happen. People can't be bothered.

Vote the assholes out? Maybe but that implies that people are truly disturbed by the endless mass killings.

The United States was just fine with a bunch of first graders getting blown apart in school. What more needs to be said.

It is a sad commentary on our society.

msongs

(69,928 posts)
3. paraphrasing - the tree of gun maker profits must be watered with blood of anybody available.
Sun Sep 8, 2024, 11:44 PM
Sep 8

call your congress person. no gun legislation, no vote for him her next time

FirstLight

(13,865 posts)
4. I think there could be a possibility there ..
Mon Sep 9, 2024, 12:00 AM
Sep 9

What if teacher's unions across the country staged a walkout and held a strike until the laws are passed?

How many days could they hold out?
How many schools could be affected?
Would it be enough to cause disruption and put the pressure on lawmakers?

If not the teachers, who? You know kids and parents would likely picket too...good optics. 😉

3Hotdogs

(13,305 posts)
7. When schools are closed, parents are affected. More so in earlier grades.
Mon Sep 9, 2024, 09:29 AM
Sep 9

The publicity, + pissed off parents.....

FeelingBlue

(753 posts)
5. What has worked in the past:
Mon Sep 9, 2024, 12:01 AM
Sep 9

It used to be that we smoked in planes and restaurants and anywhere we wanted. Then, something in our culture changed. How did that happen?

It used to be that drunk driving was more or less a “fact of life.” Now, it’s not. How did that change come about?

It used to be that joking about bothering women, abusing them, insulting them was acceptable. Now, it’s not.

It used to be that racist language was much more acceptable in our society. Now, it’s not. His did this change happen?

Change has happened in the past and can happen again. How can we make that happen??

3Hotdogs

(13,305 posts)
8. Smoking ---I can talk to that one. It took over 30 years, from 1972 to 2006 for the public smoking reform in N.J.
Mon Sep 9, 2024, 09:40 AM
Sep 9

It started in a living room in Summit, N.J. Regina Carlson decided she had has enough. For a couple of years, she went from town council meeting to meeting. At first she was laughed at. The Tobacco Institute said she was "like being pecked to death by ducks."

She wrote letters to her town paper (remember those?). People started approaching her at the end of her presentations. They wanted to work with her.

About a year later, she started N.J.G.A.S.P. (Group Against Smoking Pollution). She got radio interviews, along with callers from surrounding states, wanting to make their states smoke free. Towns began issuing smoke free ordinances which were challenged in courts and sustained.

And on and on, until the NJ legislature passed Smoke Free N.J. Bill.


THE PROBLEM IS - we already have national organizations But we have corrupt legislators and a corrupt court.

Yes. Where do we go from here?

HAB911

(9,327 posts)
6. Incredibly painful but..........
Mon Sep 9, 2024, 07:23 AM
Sep 9

release by families of crime scene photos if in their possession, or authorization for their release, would kick-start some movement

sarisataka

(20,795 posts)
9. Why would anyone call you an asshole?
Mon Sep 9, 2024, 11:02 AM
Sep 9

With a few notable exceptions conversations down here are often very cordial.

(Ironically, the name calling and death wishes I have experienced have not come from the "amosexuals&quot

3Hotdogs

(13,305 posts)
10. The idea in the original post was ridiculed in another thread by another poster.
Mon Sep 9, 2024, 02:56 PM
Sep 9

Quite a few of my proposals get alerted and removed. People don't want to hear things that do not comport with their understanding of life. Instead of questioning what is posted, people click "alert."

sarisataka

(20,795 posts)
11. I wouldn't say the idea id ridiculous
Mon Sep 9, 2024, 03:17 PM
Sep 9

unlikely perhaps, but it would get attention and isn't impossible, so not ridiculous.

I understand; I recently faced an alert storm by some who did like what I was saying. Interestingly I had a very pleasant PM conversation with the person I was debating. They were upset that someone had alerted. Our public conversation was passionate, but we found mutual respect for each other's passion though we were in overall disagreement.

Personally, I much prefer outside the box thinking over those whose beginning, middle and end solution is "ban". The more I think about it, I believe your idea has merit.

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