May 30

Only one more day left in this month. I managed to get some work in the  ball  done. I transplanted the lemon and managed to get the chamomile with its rootball into a different pot. I also have two more five gal. buckets partly filled. Yesterday I constructed a trellis for three other large buckets which I hope to plant with squash tomorrow. Like most of my gardening and housework nowadays it is small steps at a time with frequent rests. 

We turned the news off very early today. The only stories covered were the Uvalde massacre and Ukraine. I am heartily sick of both. I am even more sick of the Repthuglican talking points that absolve the over abundance of assault style rifles in our society while blaming everything else (violent video games and movies, parents, etc.). Cancun Cruze suggested "hardening the schools." He insisted that school shootings would end if only they had only one door in and one out and had heavily armed guards at the entrance. It doesn't take any great intellect or imagination to visualize how that might end. Take a look at this site for the Our Lady of the Angles school fire in 1958 where 92 students and 3 nuns died when fire and toxic smoke cut off their only way out. More were injured jumping from windows 25 ft above the ground. So instead of an asshole with an assault weapon we might have an asshole with molotov cocktails??

I wonder if he also thinks we should "harden" grocery stores since only two weeks ago a similar asshole in Buffalo murdered 10. He didn't quite have the death wish the Uvalde shooter had so the cops took him alive.

I can just visualize out future. Mom and Dad work from home which is a hardened structure with cameras recording everyone who comes in and goes out and with the added security of bullet-proof windows, very efficient fire suppression system, and an added "panic room." Mom gets the two kids ready for school fully equipped with a kevlar backpack and body armor in their jackets. They get on a bus that is armored like a military armored personnel carrier for their short ride to the school. Nobody walks any more because they might be hit by random gunfire. Mom then drives Grandma to the grocery store (in one of the family's own armored cars) and parks in a secure parking lot surrounded by high chain link fence topped with razor wire after checking in with the guard shack at the entrance and having her license plate recorded. They walk into the store under the gaze of more guards at the only entrance. After gathering their groceries they pay with a card because, of course, cash is just an enticement for would be robbers. They are escorted to their car by store personnel who help them load everything into the car and then go out the only exit, also through a gate manned by armed guards who make note of their license again. The records will be checked at the end of each day. At home they drive directly into their own underground and fortified garage where they unload. Some of the family's friends live in high-rise apartments that are equally hardened. Some of the adults who have to travel to work do so in company provided armored busses.

 That of course is only life for the well to do. Those who aren't that well off will have to brave the shootings, carjackings, and robberies on streets that aren't well patrolled which many are thankful for since the "officers" they meet seem to view them with deep suspicion. Their kids go to school, when they go, in concrete bunkers and receive zoom lessons so the teachers can be safe at home.

I wonder if anyone would wonder why they have to live in a prison state so all kinds of guns can be available to anyone who wants one for any reason at all.