We did get some snow for the much-discussed winter storm. They were only calling for 1-3 inches in our area, but I guess that the center of the state was more heavily affected than we were.
But I spent the day puttering n the kitchen. Tim requested a batch of cinnamon rolls which I whipped up. Not entirely happy with the dough, so will try again once these are gone.
I find myself reluctant to take down the Christmas tree. I know it needs to get done. The rocking chair needs to be brought back down and put in its rightful place. I guess that I am a little sad that it is all said and done.
But I am reading an interesting book ('Dicken's Favourite Blacking Factory' by Neil Price - which I would not have known about had it not been for Tasker). I started it before Christmas, and it got set aside in the holiday shuffle.
So that's it, really. I'm sad about the school shooting. I'm sad about people who can blythely dismiss any talk of it as 'hysteria' and set it into a statistical framework that minimizes risk to his own children.
I am sad about people who see the answer to this as teachers being armed. That scenario assumes that all teachers are the good guys. Unfortunately, you have only to look around you to know that this cannot be assumed. There are bad people who teach in our schools and victimize their students. Sure. We should give them all guns. That will make it easier for them to intimidate and victimize.
It just seems like wherever I look, there are very sad stories these days, and so many of them involve the children of this world. That fact, alone, is a sad story. Unfortunately, any talk of these things is dismissed as hysteria by the anyone who does not wish to discuss it.
Sad.
I talked to my grandaughter yesterday. We talked about the fact that she is learning to read. We talked about the fact that she had her dance pictures done that day. She told me that she wore makeup. When I expressed great shock that this should have all happened since I last saw her, she said, "Yes. I am not your little girl anymore."
Truth.
LATE EDIT: ALL ANONYMOUS COMMENTS WILL BE DELETED.
Love the Booker T Washington meme Debby. I wish I knew what makes our country so different than others like Australia who seemed to move so swiftly when guns there became a problem.
ReplyDeleteI'm an Australian so just can't comprehend how your country allows these shootings to keep happening again and again. I've thought about it a lot, and it seems to me that we have far more sense of collective responsibility, while your country is far more about the individual. We also saw it during the worst of the pandemic, where responses like mask wearing and isolation/ quarantine were simply uncontroversial, and done to protect others as much as the self.
DeleteI'd be interested in your thoughts.
I agree with everything you said Denise. I'm at a loss. There's a sense of entitlement here that wasn't always this extreme. Why.
DeleteChiming in here, I don't understand it either. I will never understand how people who purport to be Christian can simply have so little regard for the wellbeing of their fellow man. I am horrified at what I see unfolding around me. Evangelical Christians idolizing Trump, someone who meets every definition of the Pharisee that Jesus spoke so strongly against. Do they not read their own book, the one that they expect everyone else to live by? You know, the NRA was against automatic weapons in the 30s. It was sensible. Yet there is little that is sensible about the discussion today. We have devolved into a nation of "If it doesn't affect me, I don't care". I don't understand it. I never will.
DeleteWell said Debby! I completely agree with you. I have many family and friends that feel that way and I just don’t understand. Jackie
DeleteAnd yes, of course I agree with all of you. Has Trump caused this or has he just been an excuse for the worst inclinations of people to surface?
DeleteI believe we were on a downhill spiral. Trump mirrored this back to us to achieve his own power-mongering ends. People perceived this as validation of their own repugnant views and their behavior escalated. At the same time other power seekers climbed on to his coat tails in an attempt to leverage/maintain their own positions of power.
DeleteI should add that I'm not anti gun. I live in a rural area and know that farmers need them to shoot injured stock and so on, and I have friends who hunt and shot targets. It is just that our gun laws are so tight and enforced vigorously and it just is "normal" for us.
DeleteI might add that as a teacher the though of running kids through active shooter drills makes me feel ill. We have fire drills instead.
I do not know one antigun person. I do know plenty of people who believe that there needs to be tighter controls on them, Denise. The only thing that the NRA brings to the table is ominous warnings about what will happen if gun ownership is restricted. We're looking at what is happening this very minute. They are conjuring up bogeyman to keep people afraid, which is Donald Trump's tactic. We are allowing our fears to control us.
DeleteSo many sad happenings in the world. It makes it hard to see the goodness in people, but it's there, too often masked.
ReplyDeleteGrandchildren grow up so fast, almost faster than children, it seems.
There is goodness in people. I don't dispute it. But there is an ugliness in the world that is horrifying.
DeleteI so agree with you, Debby! It is horrifying!
DeleteIt is a sad observation, Marcia. We can only do our best to bring what goodness we can to the fray.
DeleteI got very involved in Neil's book, despite knowing the story, but he does go on a bit. I was impressed by how he built up the story from the bare bones of history.
ReplyDeleteHe does, but what I really like is his inside glimpse of that time period. When I wandered off on my tangent on the Rabone ruler, Price's depictions allowed me to set that story into an accurate time frame. The more books that I read, the more often it happens, and it always gives me a thrill when it does. I must be a pretty simple minded soul.
DeleteChildren should be safe in school, full stop.
ReplyDeleteTeachers should not have to be armed to hold off mentally ill people with assault weapons.
Teachers should not be expected to shoot armed, mentally ill people.
When someone is in the middle of an active shooter situation, your heart rate shoots up to probably 140-170. Unless you have training and experience, you can't hit a target or make good decisions when your heart rate is that high. Actual science.
Taking the life of another human is a heavy burden to bear and expecting teachers to bear that burden, because politicians can't or won't do their job is offensive.
Seems like a no brainer, doesn't it? I do not understand why something so simple should be controversial.
DeleteGood people are are standing by and doing nothing about school shootings, although I am not sure that those who stand in the way are so good. It was both a sweet and slightly sad conversation with your granddaughter.
ReplyDeleteIt was true and sweet. 5 is an exciting time. I remember the thrill of learning to read.
DeleteIt snowed here too, and I am glad of it. It's clean and white and even bright. It will go again soon, but it is here now, and it will come again.
ReplyDeleteOur snow will likely be gone this week as well.
DeleteOne of the things (and there are many) that make me profoundly sad and angry at the same time is the never ending horror of school and mass shootings in this country. How many children have to die before our politicians do something about it? The answer sadly is an infinite number, because they just don't care, they're more concerned about continuing to get money from the gun lobby. There are too damn many guns in this country and it is too damn easy for people with mental health issues to obtain them. Full disclosure: I am a gun owner, have been ever since I was able to obtain one legally.
ReplyDeleteAs are we, Jim. We also believe in common sense gun laws. No one needs to be prepping for a civil war. No one needstobeable to outgun the police. People with arrests for violence or mental health snaps that involve violence or threats of violence should be able to buy a gun. Seems pretty sensible. But no.....
Delete*should NOT be able, etc etc.
DeleteI don't think the majority want uncontrolled guns. I don't think the majority think Trump is a good choice. I want Congress to act and solve these problems and I'm hoping that the next election will get us back on the right track. I want to feel hopeful and not sad.
ReplyDeleteI believe that you are right. So why are we even at this impasse?
DeleteWhy? Trump ... Thing 45 ... the Orange Jesus ... the irrationally is f the GOP!
DeleteExcept for one male teacher I knew when I was teaching, I can't think of any other teacher in our school who would have been willing to have a gun in their possession. This is madness! So are they wanting to arm preachers, rabbis, store clerks, doctors and nurses... everybody where there's been armed violence? It's insanity. I have to stop here. It's so irritating.
ReplyDelete'Insanity' being the operative word.
DeleteMy God Kay, you're absolutely right. I wasn't even thinking that far ahead and that's surely what would come next.
DeleteOne thing that's never been mentioned about arming teachers is that they're like everybody else and can lose control. So can you see some angry upset teacher pulling out the six shooter or more and wiping out some kids. Yes, get rid of unnecessary guns.
ReplyDeleteAh, Red. There you go again...talking sense!
DeleteI am sad that you had to include the anonymous comments codicil - I can only assume that this is the rabble who wish to rouse. I had not even heard about your latest school shooting - that is how common it has become. I often have arguments with the resident right wing Christian about that particular anti-christ.
ReplyDeleteI cannot imagine how awful it must be to deal with that crap inside your house. Yeah, people will say a lot of stuff when they can hide behind that 'anonymous' tag.
DeleteI wrote a post the other day about being so completely unmotivated and many responded that they, too, feel the same. I have to wonder if all of the horrors going on in the world has us all in a place of quiet depression and anxiety. It would not be inappropriate.
ReplyDeleteI can say that these things play heavily on my mind. There is a strangeness to living in a world that makes less and less sense to me.
DeleteWe got 1.5" of rain out of that first storm. We're getting more today, but I don't know if this storm will bring you more snow or not.
ReplyDeleteIt is not supposed to. It will bring enough of a warm up that our snow will melt. Last I knew anyway.
ReplyDeleteMay I ask how old your little grand-daughter is? I was playing board games and card games with my grandson yesterday. He had his 6th Birthday at Christmas. I was trying to recall at what age my children were playing similar games and I have absolutely no idea.
ReplyDeleteThe whole question of the stability of societ at the moment makes me glad that I am in my 80th year and not my 8th.
She is 7-8 months younger than your grandson. Her mother sent me a picture of them playing what appeared to be a pretty complex logic game. I was shocked. It is a long way from Trouble or Hungry, Hungry Hippos.
DeleteI understand what you mean.
Not only is it folly to assume that all teachers are the "good guys," the fact is many teachers (me included) would never WANT to be armed. I know nothing about guns and don't want to know. If being armed were a requirement of my job I'd quit.
ReplyDeleteYou are not the only teacher that feels this way.
DeleteWell we are now an hour away from the start of a snowstorm forecasted to leave more snow over the next 24 hours than we received over the last two years with another similar sized storm coming by the end of the week. Since our weather sometimes ends up going over Pennsylvania, perhaps you'll get some out of these next two systems.
ReplyDeleteI like what Denise said at the top of the comment thread. We truly are a county of individuals with no collective responsibility. At best, we divide ourselves into two camps, one right and one wrong. I'm pretty sure I've said this before, but I think there is a ton of middle ground on this subject that could be obtained if we were willing to listen to the other side without condemnation and compromise in the name of collective responsibility.
We have a windstorm due tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteI live in a small tiny town in a rural county. This past Sunday a group of "Christian Nationalists" had a "Jan 6 Remembrance" at our county courthouse. So proud of my friends who stood across the street and read the 1st Amendment. These people are NOT Christian. They carried signs of hate. It just makes me cry. Meanwhile, home fighting a sinus infection, I decided the Christmas tree does not need to come down until February 1.
ReplyDeleteYour friends sound like keepers! Take care. Sinus infections are miserable.
DeleteThe sad state of things may be why many of us are reluctant to take down our trees this year. I finally got mine down, but didn't want to, and I see many homes still have their Christmas lights on. I can understand why.
ReplyDelete