Parkland: Students Up Against The Walls of Resistence

The worst school shooting since Columbine nearly two decades ago happened on Valentine's Day at a high school in Parkland, Florida.  Seventeen students and faculty were murdered because the suspect, who reportedly had a history of mental problems, apparently used an assault rifle to take out his frustrations on his former school.

Usually after something like this happens, we get the usual hand-wringing over how could this have happened and why isn't anything done about it, while the people in power insist "this isn't the time to talk about it" as they offer meaningless "thoughts and prayers".  The only ones who benefit from all this is the National Rifle Association.

What's different this time is that the students who were survivors of this event, having seen too many of these played out on television, are no longer interested in the status quo.  They are speaking out while mourning the loss of their peers.  They are organizing nationwide marches.  They are calling BS on the establishment.  They are calling BS on having to play the victim every time, raising their hands in the air as if they were prisoners about to be shot, or being held hostage during a lockdown.  Centers of learning shouldn't be centers of incarceration.

These students are following in the footsteps of their parents and grandparents who protested the Vietnam War.  Back then, they shut down universities and burned their draft cards to show their displeasure at a conflict no one really understood.  All that got them was more years of war and "four dead in Ohio".

The Parkland high school students will be facing a number of walls on the road to firearm sanity.  Not just President Donald Trump's wall, but also the wall of the NRA and its bought-off politicians who brush aside any meaningful gun reform, and the wall of public attitudes among Second Amendment zealots who believe gun control meaning they have to give up theirs so only the police and the bad guys have them.

There's also the wall of skeptics who think this wave of student activism is really a bogus plot by liberals to get more Democrats in Congress in November.  They point to how the FBI allegedly botched its surveillance on the shooting suspect.  How's gun control doing in Chicago, they say, which has the nation's highest crime rate?  Or how many abortions have been performed when compared to gun deaths.  Or why we should believe teenagers who have made Tide Pods detergent part of their diets?

The skeptics will also point to how there's been 18 mass shootings in 2018 alone.  If that's true, then how come we haven't heard about any of them?  Also, if you want armed guards and pistol-packing teachers in school, who's going to pay for them?  And how long will it be before somebody blames all this on the Russians?

We wish the students of Parkland, Florida, and all the other survivors of gun violence--whether it occurs in public or behind closed doors--the best in convincing our lawmakers to rein in those weapons and the individuals who use them to commit murder.  But Rome wasn't built in a day.  These students will be well into adulthood before the walls of skepticism and doubt come tumbling down, and their kids won't be cowering under their desks waiting for the all clear sign.

Trump Marches On

President Donald Trump wants a military parade, just like the ones that have been held in Paris and other, less democratic world capitals.  He wants to show off America's military might on the streets of Washington (or failing that, New York) in front of flag-waving, adoring onlookers who aren't too concerned that this country is still involved in a war (see: Afghanistan) or that the President himself doesn't have a service background.  He'll get his parade, damn the cost and the appropriateness, because he can.

Whether Trump is aware of this or not, he's already the grand marshal of several parades that have been coming in and out of Washington since he took office.  Most of them are not the kind where he can cover himself in glory.

• The parade of staffers coming into and out of the White House, due to either incompetence or the need to save their own hides.  The latest is Rob Porter, who quit his job as a staff secretary after reports of alleged domestic violence surfaced.  Trump is defending him as much as he's defending his chief of staff John Kelly, who has offered to resign.  The President has been saying that only the best people would be working for him.  Those are hard to find anywhere, let alone the White House.
• The parade of debt the country owes that continues as we speak.  Even though Congress finally passed a compromise bill that will spare us any more government shutdown drama at least until next year, they now have to consider the President's request for more money to fund the military, the country's crumbling infrastructure and that wall of his along the U.S.-Mexico border.  Which leads us to what Trump hopes will be . . . 
• The parade of undocumented workers and their children across the border to go back to wherever they came from.  After several false starts, Congress is finally ready to discuss the merits of keeping DACA, also known as the so-called "dreamers" act, in place.  Trump wants to keep some elements of immigration reform that doesn't involve a one-way ticket out of the country, but that's only if he makes some kind deal that'll appease both Republicans and Democrats.  And the likelihood of that happening is . . . ?
• The parade of evidence against Trump and his aides in the 2016 Russian election scandal.  As much as the President wishes special prosecutor Robert Mueller would wrap up his investigation and let him get on with his life, the budget calls for more money to let Mueller continue his probe into 2019.  That gives Trump plenty of time to figure out new ways to discredit Mueller, including releasing the classified GOP-written memo claiming biases inside the FBI, but not releasing the Democrats' top-secret rebuttal.  And to always come this close to firing Mueller without the lawyers holding him back.
• The parade of supporters in and out of the Republican party who are deserting Trump, either by denouncing his actions or by not running for another term in Congress.  Granted, the parade is a mere trickle compared to the millions who still think Trump is the greatest thing since sliced bread.  As long as the President admires dictators who throw military parades to boost their own egos, as well as enabling men who've had histories of sexual violence and harassment against women (it takes one to know one), he can ride that support all the way to the 2020 presidential election while the GOP crumbles and the Democrats field a weak candidate.

By then, of course, President Trump won't need parades.  He'll sign executive orders declaring his birthday to be a national holiday, and to replace Benjamin Franklin on the $100 bill.  Because he can.

The Olympics in South Korea. What Could Go Wrong?

Pyeongchang, the host for the 2018 Olympic Winter Games, is in a mountainous region near the eastern coast of South Korea.  It is 110 miles southeast of the national capital of Seoul (which hosted the 1988 Summer Games), takes two hours by train to get there, and is 15 hours ahead of the United States.  Seoul itself is not far from the North Korean border, where a state of war has been frozen in place since the fighting stopped in 1953.

Tensions have been ratcheted to the point where North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has all but promised to not only invade its southern neighbor, but to launch nuclear weapons on Japan and the United States (We don't need to tell you how much President Donald Trump is not helping the situation).  But in a rare gesture of making nice with the enemy, Kim has decided to send some of his athletes to compete with the South as a unified team.  After the Olympics, of course, they'll go their separate ways.

Athletes from all over the world are coming to Pyeongchang, but Russia will not.  At least not officially.  The International Olympic Committee banned them from the Winter Games for violations of their anti-doping program.  But 168 Russian athletes (at last count) are coming anyway as members of Olympic Athletes from Russia (OAR), minus their own flag and national anthem.  And 28 more might come because their bans were overturned in court for lack of evidence.  Of course, there's this burning question:  If Russian President Vladimir Putin could influence an American presidential election, what could he possibly do with Olympic results?

Players from the National Hockey League aren't here, either.  The NHL didn't want to shut down their regular season just so they could travel thousands of miles to risk their stars getting injured, or try to interest a country that's not interested in ice hockey.  So the men's tournament will go on with college kids and minor leaguers making up the rosters, bringing the quality of play down to 1992 levels.  Or you can watch the women's tournament instead, where you can expect Canada and the United States to compete for gold once more.

NBC and its family of networks will broadcast hundreds of hours of these Olympics.  What's different this time is that Mike Tirico has replaced Bob Costas as host of the prime time coverage, which will now be seen live coast to coast.  What won't change is the way NBC sees the Olympics, which is more like an extended version of the "Today" show with a dash of "This Is Us" thrown in.  What frustrates viewers is that, with all the feel-good profiles and other trivia, you never get the sense that you're watching an event.  Instead, you're just watching a typical prime time TV show geared toward women, which advertisers covet

For the next two weeks, the athletes will be taking center stage in the mountains of South Korea, winning medals, hearts and endorsement deals.  But there's always the chance of an interloper to ruin things, be it someone who's faked a clean drug test or a drone attack from the North.  The world is watching.  Be on your best behavior.  And have a good time.