Parkland Tragedy

Yet another American tragedy happened just last week. A high school shooting in Parkland, Florida occurred on Valentine's day 2018. The media has blown up over this shooting. You'd think that the media would learn that this is exactly the kind of turnout the shooter wants. The shooter is eating up all this attention, that he never got before. I read an article earlier today on The Washington Post by Kathleen Parker. The opinion piece was about the shooting and the actions of the politicians, and the media surrounding it. Kathleen Parker comes from the point of view of a middle-aged white journalist, that grew up in a home that had guns, and enjoys shooting guns. Her opinion of the debate surrounding the shooting is synonymous with my own. Kathleen explains that the politicians and media are not being conscientious to the victims, and the families involved. It has only been a week and a half since the shooting, and already the media is going crazy over the news since they don't have anything else to report. Kathleen goes on to talk of the NRA and their spokesperson Dana Loesch. Calling Dana and other young female conservatives out saying they are "aimed at sexualizing guns, or metaphorizing weapons to within an inch of their lives." Kathleen goes on to protect media saying that "the media follows news, a school massacre qualifies." I disagree with that notion, media is totally in it for themselves. Kathleen raises an interesting counter though, saying "You can’t talk about freedom while also making an argument for gutting the First Amendment." I'd like to believe in Kathleen's vision of a country that was more personable and caring for victims and families of the recent shooting. Our country just doesn't care I feel that we live in a time where mass shootings are so common place that everyone is jaded to any new American tragedy. I do agree with Kathleen however we do need more "adult" discussions when talking of gun control and gun related tragedies.

Government Shutdown Read All About It!

On Friday, February 9, 2018, Politico published an article on the end of the government shutdown, written by John Bresnahan, Jennifer Scholtes, and Heather Caygle. Paul Ryan, Speaker of the House is quoted as saying, “This is a great victory for our men and women in uniform. Republicans and Democrats joined together to finally give our troops the resources and our generals the certainty to plan for the future." Even more money to our nation's military. Trump tweeted saying "Our military will now be stronger than ever before-." FYI the U.S. spends upwards of about 600 billion a year to fund our defense, comparatively our nation gives about 20 billion a year to NASA. At 5:30 a.m. the bill was passed at 240-186. Major win for the GOP, the democrats got some of what they wanted though. This whole fiasco started with Rand Paul holding off the vote until midnight leading to this shutdown. Government shutdown is always an interesting topic. I highly recommend you read the article as well as this follow up article on Politico as well by Sarah Ferris.