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Melina Rudman's avatar

This is turning the tables in the heart of the temple. This is nonviolent resistance. This is speaking truth to power. This is exposing the truth and the lies used to bury the truth. Thank you Rep. Bowman. Thank you, Susan, for sharing.

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araymond@yahoo.com's avatar

Absolutely! I worked in education for 30 years, my Dad was an elementary school principal. I live 45 minutes from Newtown. That hit hard. I knew someone who was working at Newtown High that day. One of my niece’s college friends was a teacher at Sandy Hook. I saw that exchange on the news last night and thought that level of anger and frustration was exactly right.

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Susan Campbell's avatar

I think once we all start taking this personally, we will free ourselves to shout and make a kind of noise that has to be answered with action.

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Rich Colbert's avatar

mASSie is another ammosexual who sent a family photo Christmas card in which they were all displaying weapons….what fun?!? I will be calling Congressman Bowman today to commend him. The time for decorum has long since passed!

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Ava's avatar

I would. I have.

Yes, I have worked in schools. I taught for 34 years. The fear was palpable and corrosive. We knew we were the canaries in the coal mine - and no one paid attention when we began dying. Let that smarmy Massie and all his gutless, heartless, immoral, hypocritical little buddies come sit through a scenario drill for faculty and staff - I wound up sitting on the floor holding a colleague curled up in the fetal position under a desk, sobbing uncontrollably - and we *knew* it was a drill. I sat innumerable times debriefing with children after the "regular" monthly lockdown drills - with both kids and me in tears. Try looking those children in the eye when they ask you through those tears "Can you keep me safe?" And when you decide you can't lie and have to say no, I can do my best to keep all of us safe but I can't promise what I can't be sure I can deliver. Think what it's like to keep your cell phone within reach at all times - in case you need to text goodbye and I love you to your family. If you have time.

This is about money and power. Nothing else matters to those weasels. You can't appeal to their better nature: they don't have one. The only way to effect change is to work furiously on every single election at every level and take back the levers of power. Without control of both chambers of Congress and the White House, we will not see legislative relief.

No disrespect to actual weasels intended.

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Susan Campbell's avatar

Thank you for this. I teach in a college, and I hear young adults talk about their concerns -- both growing up and now. We have been basically worthless as a group in protecting them and helping them feel safe.

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Cynthia Fridlich's avatar

Oh yes, my granddaughter’s school is frequently under lockdown. We were visiting last year during one of the lockdowns and when we pick up my granddaughter, I recognized the distant, moon-eyed look of shock. I have PTSD. It took me years to get proper treatment. So we immediately took her to a private therapist to nip that ONE time in the bud. As a former educator, I cannot imagine teaching in the current hushed, violent environment where I would have to decide whether to shove a desk in front of a door or shoot a gun or watch my students get gutted by an assault rifle.

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Susan Campbell's avatar

Hard to "like" this. Jaysus.

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Ava's avatar

My room was a four second walk from the main door of the school. The training officer from the state police bluntly told me I'd have to move like lightning as we would be one of the first targets. I frequently had multiple classes in my library. Thoughts of student learning outcomes are displaced by wondering how many of the hundred kids in your room you might be able to save. Which children might be blown apart while you watched helplessly while you're dying. So, anyone wondering about the intractability of the teacher shortage?

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Susan Campbell's avatar

Indeed. Teachers sign up to teach. Period.

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Charlene L. Edge's avatar

Sometimes you just have to make a scene.

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Deacon Art's avatar

Thou shalt not be a bystander.

Hell to the YES.

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B Keck's avatar

I love his final question to Massie in this clip: "Have you ever worked in a school?" So many pols and pundits have ALL the answers to problems in education -- including "let teachers carry guns." Really? Don't even get me started on that b.s. solution, which I've addressed numerous times before in my op-eds. The point is, the vast majority of them have NOT been in a school building during a school day since they graduated from high school. And THEY know all the answers. PLEASE!

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Susan Campbell's avatar

Isn't that the truth of the thing? No experience, no empathy, and no creativity as to ways forward.

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Lou's avatar

It's worth a try. But I fear Republicans would start throwing a tantrum. I can just hear Massie pulling a "...he yelled at me..." tantrum and blame Democrats for a lack of decorum etc.

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Susan Campbell's avatar

I am tired of trying to act like this is an issue we can discuss, quietly. When politicians say, “There’s nothing more we can do,” it’s time to toss a chair.

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Cynthia Fridlich's avatar

Hi ho

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Rich Colbert's avatar

Good trouble is knocking on their doors!

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Cynthia Fridlich's avatar

He said we’d know...

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Joan Sheehan's avatar

When Sandy Hook happened, I thought for sure something would be done nationally. Of course not. So many deaths since then. It infuriates me and I applaud those who speak up.

My daughter has been teaching for ten years now. There is more than enough stress for teachers without worrying about this. It’s no wonder so many are fleeing the field.

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Pat Taylor's avatar

As a mother, grandmother & pediatric nurse I applaud Rep. Bowman’s noisy exhortation to DO something to stop our children from being murdered with guns. I also applaud the quiet but potent call for action that was spelled out with body bags lined up on the grass in Wash. DC. “Thoughts & prayers” after a shooting mean little to the distraught parent of a dead child.

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Susan Campbell's avatar

That was an incredible display, wasn't it? It probably takes all levels of speech -- and then some.

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ArtM's avatar

Laudable (& Loudable) confrontation. Kudo's to Rep. Jamaal Bowman!!! We need more like him in Congress.

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