In the month of December, 2012, more children were shot to death in the City of Chicago -- and you didn't hear a word about it....
If you are worried about your child dying, put new batteries in your smoke detectors, teach your children how to swim, and learn basic first aid. These three things are far more likely to kill your kid than some random (statistically irrelevant) shooting incident.
Even if an old abandoned structure (e.g. the Barn & Silo at 332 West Street) isn't structurally unsound, there often are a lot of ways that a child can die inside of them.
There are a lot of college-aged women who worry about breast cancer while smoking two packs of cigarettes a day and call me vile names when I suggest they be a slight bit more concerned about lung cancer (which is now also the leading "cancer" death of women).
I say the same thing to parents worried about their kids being shot in school -- no, worry about what is far more likely to kill your kid.
One other thing -- to those who don't have a background in SPED and/or a related field -- Asperger’s and or Autism did NOT cause the shooting. Nor are these "mental illnesses" -- they (and the various forms of ADHD) instead are developmental disorders.
My jaw absolutely dropped when I heard it reported that the perp did it because he had Aspberger's -- like a 90 lb woman lifting the piano that has fallen on her baby, I'm amazed that someone with Aspberger's could even perpetrate this horrible crime, let alone would actually do it.
There are people in Amherst with Aspberger's -- people holding responsible positions who are upstanding members of society. I know because I know how to recognize it -- but most of you would be quite surprised to learn that these people have it!
Here is a NYT article -- even if you don't want to listen to what I say, please listen to what the NYT says -- and others too numerous to mention.
Someone who has Aspberger's is no more inherently likely to shoot up a school than someone who is gay is inherently likely to molest & murder young boys. Yes, the two perps who raped & murdered Jeffery Curley are gay men, but none of you would say that all gay men should be considered likely to do a similar horrific act.
Please don't display similar ignorance about Aspberger's Syndrome -- which I should mention is now, per APA edict, just known as "Autism" -- and no, Ed does *not* have it.....
Thank you for remembering, Larry, in such a personal way. This is a very painful day for many of us, especially since nothing has been done in the intervening 365 days. The incident has come up spontaneously in conversations I've had over the past year, as indicative of how doomed we are as a nation.
It's not about the statistical probability that this can happen on any given day; it's not about ignoring what happens to other children in Chicago or other cities; it's about the fact that it happened at all.
All attempts to reason this away, to make this into "not a big deal", will fail for anyone with a normal amount of empathy. "The horror, the horror" (borrowed from the movie, Apocalypse Now) is the right phrase.
We can chip away at this problem, even in a free society, but we haven't really even taken a first step.
It's a scary scenario and towns like Amherst are prime for these kids of shooters, mostly opinionated liberal thinking, based on past shooters in the last ten years. The new school security measures help but wouldn't stop a psycho from doing this horrible act of selfishness.
The sad reality is guns don't kill, people do. The newer "me" generations are more capable of losing it over nothing and seeking revenge. The virtual social world they live in lacks empathy and they take that into the real world. Every time I drop my kids at school I think about the possibility that it could happen here. But then again, the odds are better I'd win the lottery than see a school shooting anywhere in this country so I'll take the lottery odds any day.
Using Newtown to advance a gun control agenda is not only wrong but stupid -- a perp going into a school intending to die can harm a whole lot more children with something else.
How many children would have died in the explosion & fire from a stolen Liquid Propane delivery truck being crashed into the school?
The classroom would be an unsurvivable inferno. Even if the classroom walls contained the blast (which I doubt), the superheated air & smoke would almost instantly spread to the hallways and adjacent classrooms.
All of this would be badly exacerbated if the schmuck managed to take out a key structural support and/or enough of a load-bearing wall to collapse part of the building...
Worse, neither Newtown nor Amherst could possibly get enough help there fast enough and there'd be children dying in the parking lot for lack of EMS care. There's a third part of "triage" often not spoken of -- those whom you intentionally let die because you have to concentrate the resources you have on those who have the best chance of survival.
Even with mutual aid -- everyone including the military (i.e. Barnes/Westover) sending absolutely everyone and everything they had, even with police & civilian volunteers, there would neither be enough people nor enough stuff there quickly enough to stabilize a couple hundred injured/burnt children and some would have to be left to die for the good of the others.
Even this is assuming that the well-intended efforts of different agencies didn't wind up being counterproductive -- starting with inbound & outbound ambulances and helicopters, all used to everyone else getting out of their way, managing not to run into each other.
I mention LP gas because those trucks are common -- starting with Oosterman's up on Route 116 in Sunderland -- but even more chilling possibilities are available with various combinations of things one can purchase at WalMart, Target, Home Depot & Lowes -- even Stop & Shop & Big Y.
Remember Timothy McVey and the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City? Everything he used can be legally purchased in Amherst.
Say what you wish about guns, they are a little bit more difficult to obtain....
And for what it is worth, a while back, Homeland Security issued a warning a while back that parents should know the driver of their child's school bus and be concerned if someone else is driving it.
A standard schoolbus holds 72 elementary school-aged children -- that's twice the number murdered in Newtown -- and I'm not even going to get into all the possibilities of what maliciously could be done without a gun.
And if Homeland Security is saying this, they may have a reason.
Then there is what happened at the Boston Marathon -- that didn't involve a gun....
In the month of December, 2012, more children were shot to death in the City of Chicago -- and you didn't hear a word about it....
ReplyDeleteIf you are worried about your child dying, put new batteries in your smoke detectors, teach your children how to swim, and learn basic first aid. These three things are far more likely to kill your kid than some random (statistically irrelevant) shooting incident.
Thank you Larry. Please remember to be kind to one another. We Are Newtown- we choose love.
ReplyDeleteJean
I try. Irish Catholic upbringing and all that.
ReplyDeleteSometimes it's hard. But then, those are times that really matter.
Even if an old abandoned structure (e.g. the Barn & Silo at 332 West Street) isn't structurally unsound, there often are a lot of ways that a child can die inside of them.
ReplyDeleteThere are a lot of college-aged women who worry about breast cancer while smoking two packs of cigarettes a day and call me vile names when I suggest they be a slight bit more concerned about lung cancer (which is now also the leading "cancer" death of women).
I say the same thing to parents worried about their kids being shot in school -- no, worry about what is far more likely to kill your kid.
One other thing -- to those who don't have a background in SPED and/or a related field -- Asperger’s and or Autism did NOT cause the shooting. Nor are these "mental illnesses" -- they (and the various forms of ADHD) instead are developmental disorders.
ReplyDeleteMy jaw absolutely dropped when I heard it reported that the perp did it because he had Aspberger's -- like a 90 lb woman lifting the piano that has fallen on her baby, I'm amazed that someone with Aspberger's could even perpetrate this horrible crime, let alone would actually do it.
There are people in Amherst with Aspberger's -- people holding responsible positions who are upstanding members of society. I know because I know how to recognize it -- but most of you would be quite surprised to learn that these people have it!
Here is a NYT article -- even if you don't want to listen to what I say, please listen to what the NYT says -- and others too numerous to mention.
Someone who has Aspberger's is no more inherently likely to shoot up a school than someone who is gay is inherently likely to molest & murder young boys. Yes, the two perps who raped & murdered Jeffery Curley are gay men, but none of you would say that all gay men should be considered likely to do a similar horrific act.
Please don't display similar ignorance about Aspberger's Syndrome -- which I should mention is now, per APA edict, just known as "Autism" -- and no, Ed does *not* have it.....
See: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/18/opinion/dont-blame-autism-for-newtown.html?_r=0
Thank you for remembering, Larry, in such a personal way. This is a very painful day for many of us, especially since nothing has been done in the intervening 365 days. The incident has come up spontaneously in conversations I've had over the past year, as indicative of how doomed we are as a nation.
ReplyDeleteIt's not about the statistical probability that this can happen on any given day; it's not about ignoring what happens to other children in Chicago or other cities; it's about the fact that it happened at all.
All attempts to reason this away, to make this into "not a big deal", will fail for anyone with a normal amount of empathy. "The horror, the horror" (borrowed from the movie, Apocalypse Now) is the right phrase.
We can chip away at this problem, even in a free society, but we haven't really even taken a first step.
Nobody sets up the straw men and then knocks them down, quite like Ed.
ReplyDeleteI trust that since Ed insists on treating the readers of this blog like morons, the readers are resisting the temptation to be engaged by him.
Sorry, I slipped this one time.
It's a scary scenario and towns like Amherst are prime for these kids of shooters, mostly opinionated liberal thinking, based on past shooters in the last ten years. The new school security measures help but wouldn't stop a psycho from doing this horrible act of selfishness.
ReplyDeleteThe sad reality is guns don't kill, people do. The newer "me" generations are more capable of losing it over nothing and seeking revenge. The virtual social world they live in lacks empathy and they take that into the real world. Every time I drop my kids at school I think about the possibility that it could happen here. But then again, the odds are better I'd win the lottery than see a school shooting anywhere in this country so I'll take the lottery odds any day.
"Those who would sacrifice liberty in order to seek safety neither deserve nor will enjoy either." Ben Franklin.
ReplyDeleteMr. Franklin lived in a far simpler time.
ReplyDeleteHe also said:
ReplyDelete"We are all born ignorant, but one must work hard to remain stupid."
Benjamin Franklin
Using Newtown to advance a gun control agenda is not only wrong but stupid -- a perp going into a school intending to die can harm a whole lot more children with something else.
ReplyDeleteHow many children would have died in the explosion & fire from a stolen Liquid Propane delivery truck being crashed into the school?
The classroom would be an unsurvivable inferno. Even if the classroom walls contained the blast (which I doubt), the superheated air & smoke would almost instantly spread to the hallways and adjacent classrooms.
All of this would be badly exacerbated if the schmuck managed to take out a key structural support and/or enough of a load-bearing wall to collapse part of the building...
Worse, neither Newtown nor Amherst could possibly get enough help there fast enough and there'd be children dying in the parking lot for lack of EMS care. There's a third part of "triage" often not spoken of -- those whom you intentionally let die because you have to concentrate the resources you have on those who have the best chance of survival.
Even with mutual aid -- everyone including the military (i.e. Barnes/Westover) sending absolutely everyone and everything they had, even with police & civilian volunteers, there would neither be enough people nor enough stuff there quickly enough to stabilize a couple hundred injured/burnt children and some would have to be left to die for the good of the others.
Even this is assuming that the well-intended efforts of different agencies didn't wind up being counterproductive -- starting with inbound & outbound ambulances and helicopters, all used to everyone else getting out of their way, managing not to run into each other.
I mention LP gas because those trucks are common -- starting with Oosterman's up on Route 116 in Sunderland -- but even more chilling possibilities are available with various combinations of things one can purchase at WalMart, Target, Home Depot & Lowes -- even Stop & Shop & Big Y.
Remember Timothy McVey and the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City? Everything he used can be legally purchased in Amherst.
Say what you wish about guns, they are a little bit more difficult to obtain....
And for what it is worth, a while back, Homeland Security issued a warning a while back that parents should know the driver of their child's school bus and be concerned if someone else is driving it.
ReplyDeleteA standard schoolbus holds 72 elementary school-aged children -- that's twice the number murdered in Newtown -- and I'm not even going to get into all the possibilities of what maliciously could be done without a gun.
And if Homeland Security is saying this, they may have a reason.
Then there is what happened at the Boston Marathon -- that didn't involve a gun....
Just what I'm looking for: regurgitated cliches from cable news networks. Thanks, guys.
ReplyDeleteAh, the obligatory Hitler reference to shut down reasoned argument. Pushing all the buttons today.
ReplyDeleteStraight from the Demogogue's Handbook.