I haven’t mentioned the shooting in Highland Park – at a Fourth of July parade – because I honestly don’t know what to say anymore. I’ve been fighting for gun control since my student was murdered by a 17 year old girl using an illegal handgun. If you want to know how many years ago that was, it was two months almost to the day before I met Don. Twenty-eight years.
There are times when I lose hope for this country. There are times – increasingly more often – that I am ashamed to be an American. If I were younger, I’d move out of the country.
The image I kept seeing online the day of the shooting was of a two year old boy being held by someone with appeals to find his family. Now we know that both of his parents were murdered by the gunman. I can’t get that boy’s sweet face out of my mind.
What kind of country allows these weapons of war to be easily accessible?
For every damn argument we get from the right about mental health or doors or ‘all we need are good guys with guns,’ or arming teachers; there is only one truth. It’s the guns. It’s the NRA. It’s the politicians who are bought and paid for by the NRA. All the ‘right to life’ people don’t care about life after birth. Once you’re born, it’s every child and adult for himself.
There were armed police – presumably good guys with guns – at the parade. They couldn’t stop him.
There were armed police in Uvalde. And you know how ineffectual they were.
Anyway, nothing you’re hearing from me is new. I’ve said it in one way or another before.
I’m sick at heart. I despise what this country has become.
On another note, the next January 6th Committee hearing is next Tuesday at 10 am EST.
Stay safe.
Happy Wednesday.
well said (as usual), claudia.
same from me … :(
also ):(
thanks for having more words about this heartbreaking, horrible and shameful stuff than i can come up with today.
slow start here today thanks to thunder, lightning and rain, all much needed and enjoyed! going to take care of some chores, then go hug the members of my family that i can see today.
hope you all are safe and have an easy day.
xo,
kathy
Thank you, Kathy.
Stay safe.
It’s all rather sickening! Did you see the guy doing the shooting? There were red flags, yet he still got approved for a firearm. Obviously, vetting everyone before buying isn’t helping. What the H… went wrong with him, his family, his growing up years?????
I just don’t know anymore! And then we have over 50 people left in a trailer at the border! All of them dead. Can you even image what they went through?
So Bad!
Well it didn’t help that his dad co-signed for the guns or the application.
I cannot even fathom what happened to those poor souls.
Stay safe, Darlene.
Seriously? Good Grief!
Yes.
I agree, well said, Claudia! Just sad we all have to keep saying these same words! I was so sad to see that picture of the little boy… heartbreaking.
Words seem inadequate.
Stay safe, Barrie.
Amen and Amen.
Thank you, Tana.
Stay safe.
Yes, it’s the guns, it’s the NRA. We need gun control. But I keep wondering about the young men. What is it in our society that causes these boys/men to do this?
The Highland Park shooter certainly gave indications. He sounds like a kid that was probably bullied, a loner.
I think there are many factors and it’s complex. Making it harder to get guns, raising the age, banning assault guns is a start. I think schools should be focusing on how to screen for these troubled kids and provide help. I would rather spend money on mental health services in schools than on more locks, and bullet proof glass and such. I have little hope that things will change. I live on the outskirts of a small city. Every day there is a shooting. And it’s primarily young men…gangs and drugs are part of it.
No easy answers to any of it.
Take care
All good points, Marilyn. Thank you.
Stay safe.
Of course it’s the freaking guns. You think we don’t have angry young men here in Australia? Or in England? Or in any other sensible country you care to mention?? What is the difference? It’s the freaking guns!
I think it’s also way too easy to pull the “mental illness” thing. There was a widescale study done here which showed that people with a mental illness are way more likely to be the victim of violence rather than the perpetrator. More likely risk factors: male, young male, “troubled childhood” (whatever that means), and alcohol/drugs.
I am angry on your behalf. Seriously angry.
As are we, Denise. As are we.
Thank you.
Stay safe.
There is an easy answer; ban assault weapons! It is the guns! How can people not see that? I too am totally disgusted. But I have to remember Cassidy and what courage that took and I am not completely without hope. Love you girl.
Love you back, my dear friend.
Stay safe.
That poor little boy broke my heart.
The 2nd Amendment says nothing about assault rifles – what legitimate purpose could they possibly serve.
This is not the America I was raised to love.
The second amendment was written for muskets. That’s it.
I agree. This is not the America I want to be a part of.
Stay safe!
Dear Claudia, may your voice and all others be heard and a return to the assault weapons ban happen! Thank you thank you for your writing today.
As I understand it, this young man had his knives taken away in September, 2019, no arrest was made – no mention of requiring him to receive mental counseling or participate in community service. In December, 2019, his father sponsored him to get a license to purchase guns. Reminds me of the Sandy Hook shooter. I’m guessing some civil suits against the parents will be coming soon.
We’ve discussed moving out of the country also.
What the hell was his father thinking? He couldn’t handle knives, but a gun was okay?
Stay safe, Martha.
Honestly, what?! The father ran for Mayor of Highland Park in 2019, big on gun rights and that former Prez. A family of notoriety-seeking behavior.
I hope they’re sued. I’m sure they will be.
Do you mean the two-year-old boy who was found underneath his dead father who used his body as a shield to protect his son? Out here in the West, I kept having that question in my mind when the news folks would say the boy was found and reunited with extended family, so I was thinking to myself, my God, was he just wandering around while the bullets were ricocheting or did somebody see him, scoop him up for safety, because another couple was interviewed saying how a man gave them his little girl and asked that they get her to safety because he had to go back for his wife, in all the still-terrible danger zone, because she’d been shot in the leg. And the poor man, a sitting duck in his wheelchair; I don’t think I slept a wink last night because of all these images. And also to think that there were all kinds of warning signs of this shooter, known to police; is just unconscionable and not understandable.
Is it problems of mental health? Yes. Is it problems of assault weapons in anybody’s hands other than the military? A much bigger yes. Get the guns off our streets! Like some person said, I think it’s a congressperson, “Our Constitution talks of the right to bear arms, but those were muskets in a prior century; not assault rifles.” There was the one doctor who was interviewed pretty extensively, at the parade as a civilian; who, of course, as any good doctor would do, jumped into the fray to see how he could help the wounded; and, although he was initially careful in his words to describe the wounds of those he saw who died at the scene, he subsequently got more graphic in other interviews … I feel, to drive home the point that powerful weapons of war have no place on America’s streets. We’d already gotten a feel for the types of devastating, fatal wounds inflicted on the schoolchildren of Uvalde; but, this time, I had to look up ‘eviscerated’ which is when I looked at my husband and said, “We have to do something. It’s not just voting for the right people to represent us in Congress who want to enact gun laws and who are opposed to gun violence. You and I don’t have money, but we have to do something more, and I don’t know if that means join a demonstration to make a point, or what, but we can’t stand by and not find a way to make our voices heard more loudly. It’s going to take the groundswell of ordinary Americans like you and me to stand up to this incomprehensible carnage. The gun toters say they have their rights; well, you and I have our rights, too, to stay alive.”
I’m angry; really angry. I’m angry for senseless loss of upstanding, good citizens of the world who didn’t deserve to die. I can’t get that ‘machine-gun’ sound out of my head from the videos/audio obtained by the news media; the moments of the shooting caught on people’s phones. I’ve never heard anything like that in my life and I hope to never hear it again. How can any of those parade-goers ever live a normal life again after enduring this kind of trauma; my heart goes out to them, and my prayers. But it’s not enough.
I think you might be conflating two stories. One child was put in a dumpster or something like that by his father in order to shield the child from the bullets. The two year old was found wandering the streets. He may have been under his father’s body, but I’ve not read that. People found him walking around all by himself.
It’s horrific.I can’t dwell on it for too long. I just can’t. If I do, I’ll lose my mind.
Stay safe, Vicki.
Whoops! I take that back. I just read an update that said his father shielded him. Sorry, Vicki.
Well, here’s an update I’ve just read, and it’s all too terrible as I sit here keyboarding and crying simultaneously: ‘Aiden “was pulled out from underneath his father, who was still bleeding, by good Samaritans,” US Sen. Tammy Duckworth, an Illinois Democrat, told CNN’s John Berman on Wednesday. “Then, they went to work on his dad because his dad’s leg was still bleeding.” “The McCarthys had been looking forward to seeing the parade with their toddler, Levberg told the Sun-Times. “They were crazy about their child,” he said. “They were planning two.” After the gunfire subsided, Aiden — a little boy, all alone — “was walking in the street,” his grandfather told the Sun-Times. It’s an image others captured and shared on social media. A neighbor, Adrienne Rosenblatt, saw Aiden’s photo on a neighborhood watch page and began trying to connect him with his grandparents, she told CNN affiliate WLS. Meantime, strangers caught in the chaos cared for the toddler, according to a verified GoFundMe campaign that his mother’s cousin, Irina Colon, started after the shooting. Dana and Greg Ring spotted Aiden after the barrage of shots upended the parade they’d come to watch, he told WLS. The pair tried to get him to police. “When we pulled in, the cops looked like they were getting ready for war,” Greg said. “I’ll never forget. I pulled up, and I said, ‘This is not our kid. It’s not his blood; he’s OK. What should we do?’ “And the cop said, ‘We can’t be babysitters now. Can you take care of him?’ “We said, ‘Of course.'” Aiden did end up at a police station, where he was reunited with Levberg, the grandfather told Chicago Tribune.’
I had never seen any video yet of the child wandering the street. It’s a miracle he didn’t get shot as well.
I am just sick to my stomach. Heartsick in my soul. We’re still grieving for the children of Uvalde, and now this. But every week, it’s another shooting and MORE grief.
And I did, by the way, think it was ‘genius’ for the father to temporarily put his dog and kid(s) in the dumpster, as gross as it sounds. Quick thinking; anything to keep them safe from gunfire while the man went back, in all the chaos, to find his other family members. I just worry to myself if I personally could have equally-quick and logical thinking in such a scene/catastrophic event; would I know what to do to protect myself and others. My husband had years and years of active-shooter training in his previous job, so he’s put me thru the drill of run if you can, hide if you can’t; and if you can’t run or hide, fight back with all your might, grab anything to shield yourself or defend yourself. Still, I worry for my brain, if I’d know what to do.
And we don’t even know yet of the seventh victim. I don’t think any info has yet been released. Either he can’t be identified due to his wounds, or else they can’t locate next of kin. I wish I had a lot of money, so that I could contribute heavily to the GoFundMe accounts being set up. And I had a nurse once whose aim, after she took early retirement, was to get a motorhome and travel the country, going to these horrific scenes of disaster, even — say — to the aftermath of a hurricane, to assist in any way she could, with temporary shelter of her ‘coach’, emergency nursing care she could provide, etc. She pulled it off for a little while and, were she alive today and not having died due to a brain tumor, I know she’d have made her way to Highland Park, to try to make a difference in any positive way possible. She was an angel; a really good person. I’ve said it before as a cry from within, why do all the good ones have to die.
Yes, I just read that same update from CNN.
xo
I have no words
I understand, Brenda.
Stay safe.
dear Claudia/Don — have been thinking re your post — trying to think of something positive to say but can not. Amen to your comments, altho have no answers for any of the insanity. so much hate everywhere, impossible to comprehend or solve. this problem will take someone MUCH smarter than me to find solutions — but where do we begin????? hope you will stay safe, sane, healthy
I’d begin by banning assault weapons but the GOP as it is now would never let that happen.
Stay safe, Linda.
We must all be saddened and frustrated and maddened by the continued assaults in our public places. I don’t feel safe anywhere anymore.
Neither do I, Roxie.
Stay safe.
There aren’t words. It is so humiliating to this country, land that I (used to) love. I have tried to think like someone on the “other side” and I cannot, in any way, shape, or form, get there. How do they justify all of this so easily? I agree with some others about the mental health aspect. We DO have to become better at diagnosing and not discriminating, but we also can’t charge it all to the schools. Unless there is a lot of money somewhere and loads of people willing to become MH providers in school districts. Even if the school had tried to help this person, the parents had the ultimate decision to make. Which they did. Sadly.
We found out today that the shooter worked his way from the Parade in Highland Park up to Madison that afternoon. He dumped his cell phone in Middleton around 4-4:30PM. Hubs was driving the wee-one home at that time through Middleton as she had spent the previous night with us. It just makes you think of so very many horrible, awful, things. Going anywhere brings thughts of what might happen…..no way to live. Where is OUR Freedom in all of this just so THEY can have their guns. So very, very disgusted.
oh, wow, chris …
same here. with all the scary, hard stuff going on in this country and world, it’s hard for me to not think of horrible and “what if” things (a reason i try to avoid the news).
do you have any good stress relievers? hope so. also, i’m looking for more to try and appreciate suggestions.
very happy for you all and grateful that your husband and granddaughter were safe in middleton, that you all are safe.
sending a hug (if okay) and keeping you all in prayers,
kathy
Thx for the kind words, kathy, and hugs are always okay!! Yes, when I first heard about his journey from Highland Park, I could not wrap my head around the “what ifs”. I guess we have to know that every time we go somewhere, we need to think about escape plans, and the situations that just could occur. We are waaayy beyond the “I never thought it could happen here”, because, apparantly, it is just a matter of time. It just isn’t the way any of us thought we would have to live.
That is too close for comfort, Chris.
Yes. Our freedom seems to not matter. Just the freedom to buy guns. I can’t…
Stay safe, Chris.
Rick used to cycle that road every day on his way to work when he worked in Ravinia and has taken this one especially hard — although to be fair, every single one is especially hard. And yes, it’s all about the guns.
When we have a personal connection to a community or place, these tragedies resonate even more strongly.
Stay safe, Jeanie.
Amen,Claudia!xo
Thank you, Annette.
Stay safe.