Florida's 'Teacher Of The Year' Bluntly Explains Why School Violence Is Out Of Control

 

The day after the horrific shooting that took place at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, she posted a rant on Facebook that has since gone viral. In the post, she talked about parental responsibility, compassion, and respect…and more than 823,000 people have “liked” the post and agreed with it, while more than 649,000 have shared it with others.

Here’s what Mrs. Raley had to say.

Okay, I’ll be the bad guy and say what no one else is brave enough to say, but wants to say. I’ll take all the criticism and attacks from everyone because you know what? I’m a TEACHER. I live this life daily. And I wouldn’t do anything else! But I also know daily I could end up in an active shooter situation.

Until we, as a country, are willing to get serious and talk about mental health issues, lack of available care for the mental health issues, lack of discipline in the home, horrendous lack of parental support when the schools are trying to control horrible behavior at school (oh no! Not MY KID. What did YOU do to cause my kid to react that way?), lack of moral values, and yes, I’ll say it-violent video games that take away all sensitivity to ANY compassion for others’ lives, as well as reality TV that makes it commonplace for people to constantly scream up in each others’ faces and not value any other person but themselves, we will have a gun problem in school. Our kids don’t understand the permanency of death anymore!

I grew up with guns. Everyone knows that. But you know what? My parents NEVER supported any bad behavior from me. I was terrified of doing something bad at school, as I would have not had a life until I corrected the problem and straightened my ass out.

My parents invaded my life. They knew where I was ALL the time. They made me have a curfew. They made me wake them up when I got home. They made me respect their rules.

They had full control of their house, and at any time could and would go through every inch of my bedroom, backpack, pockets, anything! Parents: it’s time to STEP UP! Be the parent that actually gives a crap! Be the annoying mom that pries and knows what your kid is doing. STOP being their friend. They have enough “friends” at school. Be their parent. Being the “cool mom” means not a damn thing when either your kid is dead or your kid kills other people because they were allowed to have their space and privacy in YOUR HOME. I’ll say it again. My home was filled with guns growing up. For God’s sake, my daddy was an 82nd Airborne Ranger who lost half his face serving our country.

But you know what? I never dreamed of shooting anyone with his guns. I never dreamed of taking one! I was taught respect for human life, compassion, rules, common decency, and most of all, I was taught that until I moved out, my life and bedroom wasn’t mine…it was theirs. And they were going to know what was happening because they loved me and wanted the best for me.

There. Say that I’m a horrible person. I didn’t bring up gun control, and I will refuse to debate it with anyone. This post wasn’t about gun control. This was me, loving the crap out of people and wanting the best for them. This was about my school babies and knowing that God created each one for greatness, and just wanting them to reach their futures. It’s about 20 years ago this year I started my teaching career. Violence was not this bad 20 years ago. Lack of compassion wasn’t this bad 20 years ago. And God knows 20 years ago that I wasn’t afraid daily to call a parent because I KNEW that 9 out of 10 would cuss me out, tell me to go to Hell, call the news on me, call the school board on me, or post all over FaceBook about me because I called to let them know what their child chose to do at school…because they are a NORMAL kid!

Those 17 lives mattered. When are we going to take our own responsibility seriously?

More @ Zero Hedge

NYT: Banks, Credit Card Companies Can End ‘Assault Weapon’ Sales by Withholding Finances

 Breitbart

On February 19 the New York Times suggested banks can go around Congress on gun control by refusing finances to stores and companies that deal in “assault weapons.”

A similar approach, Operation Choke Point, was used by the Department of Justice during Barack Obama’s second term in office and has been targeted for closure under the Trump administration.

On August 17, 2017, Politico quoted House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlette describing Operation Choke Point as “a misguided initiative.” Goodlette observed, “Law abiding businesses should not be targeted simply for operating in an industry that a particular administration might disfavor.”

But NYT says banks and credit card companies could continue such policies by simply banding together against certain aspects of the firearms industry.

NYT reports: “PayPal, Square, Stripe and Apple Pay announced years ago that they would not allow their services to be used for the sale of firearms.”

They floated this possibility:

Visa, which published a 71-page paper in 2016 espousing its “corporate responsibility,” could easily change its terms of service to say that it won’t do business with retailers that sell assault weapons, high-capacity magazines and bump stocks, which make semiautomatic rifles fire faster. (Even the National Rifle Association has said it would support tighter restrictions on bump stocks.)

They continued, “If Mastercard were to do the same, assault weapons would be eliminated from virtually every firearms store in America because otherwise the sellers would be cut off from the credit card system.”

The message is clear–if Senators and House Members stand for the Second Amendment instead of gun control, then circumvent those Senators and House Members via a monolithic approach to banking that omits any financial opportunity related to “assault weapons.”

Congressman from North Carolina Says America Does Not Have Gun Problem

 

The brutal attack at Parkland High School in Florida where 17 students and staff were killed on Valentine’s Day has people across the country calling for action from their political representatives.

U. S. Representative Ted Budd visited a Walgreens Pharmacy in High Point on Monday, to discuss the opioid epidemic. The conversation quickly turned to the epidemic of gun violence in America.

But Rep. Budd, a Republican who owns a gun retail store, made it clear he believes this is a violence problem and not a gun problem.

“We have to make sure at its very core, we deal with violence and whether that comes from something that could be radical Islamic terrorism or it’s somebody that’s deeply mentally disturbed we have to get to the core and it’s usually those two things that cause these mass killings,” said Rep. Budd who represents the 13th district.

More @ WFMY

Goodies from Ol' Remus

Posted without comment.

Im glad she died. I feel bad for the others. That’s what he gets!
— Shady Jacob Facts (@ShadyJacobFact) February 15, 2018

Trump did this. The NRA did this. Republicans did this.
— Jay Z(amora) (@Jay_MCMLXXXIX) February 16, 2018

 Ol' Remus

Michael Peck at National Interest says military aircraft are "expended like so much ammunition in a massive war of attrition", in his article, Revealed: How the Air Force Almost Brought Back the P-51 Mustang

America lost almost forty-four thousand Army Air Force aircraft overseas during the Second World War, plus another fourteen thousand in training accidents in the United States... Even Operation Rolling Thunder in Vietnam cost more than nine hundred aircraft.

  Task & Purpose - The Army Is Making Good On Its Pledge To Bring Back The Carl Gustaf — With A Major Vengeance ... super bazooka

Black self esteem has truly entered a crisis phase. The Wakanda legend was created as an over-the-top origin myth in a 1960s comic book. In turn, they took the name 'Wakanda' from an Edgar Rice Burroughs's 1915 screenplay, The Man-Eater, later published as a novel.

As Jamie Broadnax at Huffington Post touchingly puts it, "What makes Afrofuturism significantly different from standard science fiction is that it’s steeped in ancient African traditions and black identity". Um, what?! Ancient African traditions? Earth to Jamie: it's not real, the movie was made from a comic book, remember?

An entire race is getting trolled and they lap it up. I'm down to the last atom of my last crumb of optimism.

Child Sacrifice of the Left

 

These are times that illustrate the reason the United States of America were designed as a REPUBLIC and not a DEMOCRACY. Despite the insistence of politicians to describe our republic as a democracy, it is at just such times as these, of high emotion, that a republic was preferred and not by just a little bit. All of the founders understood that a democracy allows for the majority to decide individual rights based on votes, based on emotion, based on prejudice, but that a republic is designed to ensure individual rights against precisely the hysteria we see in the wake of the Parkland shooting.

 

At the church I attended last Sunday, a sheriff deputy's car was parked out front and the deputy sheriff was inside, armed and making eye contact with everyone who entered. It was a bit odd to see him standing there in uniform, but at many of the services I attend there are one or two open carry individuals in the congregation, so it wasn't the idea of the weapons being present, but by who presented them. This is the state of our nation. Where there is an occasion for mass killings, there MUST be armed resistance. 

 

More @ Christian Mercenary

Neither Revolted Provinces nor Rebellious Subjects

 

The following is excerpted from a letter written to Confederate diplomat James M. Mason by Secretary of State, R.M.T. Hunter, explaining the American Confederacy’s reasons for seeking independence and a more perfect Union.
Bernhard Thuersam, www.Circa1865.com   The Great American Political Divide

Neither Revolted Provinces nor Rebellious Subjects

“Department of State

Richmond, September 23, 1861

Sir — The President desires that you should . . . in presenting the case once more to the British Government, you ought again to explain the true position in which we appear before the world. We are not to be viewed as revolted provinces or rebellious subjects, seeking to overthrow the lawful authority of a common sovereign.

Neither are we warring for rights of a doubtful character, or such as are to be ascertained only be implication. On the contrary, the Union from which we have withdrawn was founded on the express stipulations of a written instrument which established a government whose powers were to be exercised for certain declared purposes and restricted within well-defined limits.

When a sectional majority persistently violated the covenants and conditions of that compact, those States whose safety and well-being depended upon the performance of these covenants were justly absolved from all moral obligation to remain in such a Union.

Such were the causes which led the Confederate States to form a new Union, to be composed of more homogenous materials and interests.

The authority of our Government itself was denied [by Washington], its people denounced as rebels, and a war was waged against them, which, if carried on in the spirit it was proclaimed, must be the most sanguinary and barbarous which has been known for centuries among civilized people.

The Confederate States have thus been forced to take up arms in defense of their right of self-government, and in the name of that sacred right they have appealed to the nations of the earth, not for material aid or alliances, offensive and defensive, but for the moral weight which they would derive from holding a recognized place as a free and independent people.”

(Instructions to Hon. James M. Mason, Southern Historical Society Papers, Volume VII, January-December 1879, Rev. J. William Jones, Broadfoot Publishing Company, 1990, excerpts pp. 231-233)

Army awards heroism medals to JROTC cadets killed in Florida school shooting

Via John

Three junior ROTC cadets who were killed in the Florida high school shooting last week will be honored with heroism medals by the U.S. Army.

A spokesman for the U.S. Army told Fox News on Tuesday that Cadet Command approved Junior ROTC Heroism Medals for cadets Alaina Petty, Peter Wang and Martin Duque.

 The family of Petty, 14, were presented the medal during her funeral service Monday, at which more than 1,500 people attended to pay their respects.

Wang’s family received his medal at his service Tuesday morning.

According to students and teachers, Wang, 15, died in his junior ROTC uniform while helping students, teachers and staff escape from the shooting rampage.

More @ Fox

Marion Marechal-Le Pen to speak at CPAC

Via Billy

The niece of former French right-wing presidential candidate Marine Le Pen is among the list of speakers announced for the 2018 Conservative Political Action Conference to be held this week.

Marion Marechal-Le Pen, who in 2012 became France's youngest member of parliament in modern history before leaving politics in 2017, will address the annual gathering of conservatives on CPAC's opening day this Thursday shortly after Vice President Mike Pence's appearance.

More @ Washington Examiner

A Veteran's Car and a Son's Keepstake

Via Cousin Colby

Devin Nunes' 10 questions about the Trump dossier

 

House Intelligence Committee chairman Devin Nunes has sent a series of questions about the Trump dossier to a number of current and former government officials. The committee did not specify to whom Nunes sent the questions, but a spokesman said the letter has gone to 11 recipients.

The questions concern when the recipients first became aware of "the information contained in the Steele dossier," referring to the compilation of anti-Trump allegations compiled during the 2016 campaign by former British spy Christopher Steele. The letter asks who the recipients may have shared dossier information with. They ask when the recipient first learned that the dossier was financed by the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee. They ask when President Obama was made aware of the information in the dossier. And more.

More @ Washington Examiner

Trump is exonerated by Mueller indictment of Russians

 

Mueller twice describes Trump campaign officials’ interactions with Russians as “unwitting.” It is not politically reasonable that at some future date Mueller would then describe other campaign interactions as “collusion.” 


Special counsel Robert Mueller’s indictment Friday of 13 Russian individuals and 3 businesses effectively exonerated President Trump and his campaign from the media’s allegations of “collusion” with the Russians in the 2016 presidential election.

The indictment also returns the investigation of Russia’s meddling in America’s politics back to where it began – namely, as a counter-intelligence investigation.

More @ Washington Examiner

Colorado state rep, Columbine survivor, pushes to end gun-free zones in schools

Via Billy

Colorado House Minority Leader Patrick Neville, who was a Columbine High School sophomore at the time of the 1999 mass shooting, is pushing legislation that he says would protect students — by getting rid of gun restrictions in schools.

He has introduced the bill annually since he was elected in 2014, The Washington Times reported. 

Previous attempts have been turned down.

Neville, a Republican, told The Times the current law “creates a so-called gun free zone in every K-12 public school.”

More @ Fox

Majority of Americans Now Support Trump Tax Cuts & Republicans lead Democrats in the generic race.

Via Billy

In December after weeks of negative press by the far left mainstream media the polling for Republicans looked bleak.

Only 33% of Americans supported the Trump tax cut.

52% disapproved of the tax cut.

In December Democrats led Republicans by 18 points in CNN’s generic party polling.

One month later Republicans are down only 5 points after passing the Trump tax cuts.

And two months later Republicans lead Democrats in the generic race.

 A new poll from the far left New York Times has a majority of Americans now approve of the Trump tax cuts.

More @ The Gateway Pundit

Vietnamese Ingenuity 1973 & The End 1975

Via KhaiCo Vu

 

Via Giang Ky

                                  Comments mention USS Dubuque and Air America