It is one of Life’s Great Ironies that the same folks who seem to routinely vote down school bond issues are clamoring to increase funding for security, which will no doubt mean even more teachers will have pull money out of their own pockets so that students can have basic supplies.
I am not questioning the need for safer schools, but as long as every mass shooting brings out frenzied defenders of the Second Amendment with Facebook memes mocking any and all concern about the proliferation of guns in our society – not to mention the number of elected officials in thrall to the gun industry – I have the sinking feeling that more stringent gun laws belong more in the realm of Fantasy Island than the United States of America.
So the remains: who will pay for the increased security, and how?
A few years ago we had militia types who were volunteering their time and firepower to guard schools, but I’m pretty sure they lost interest as soon as the TV cameras went away.
Taxes.
I have seen some online (why do I even look there for rational arguments?) claim that the federal government should shoulder the burden. It boggles the mind to think of how this might even be set up. Use the National Guard, as Barbara Boxer once suggested?
Some have argued that military veterans should shoulder the task, though these ideas seem to go in the grouping of “Let’s run it up the flagpole and see it anybody salutes” notions.
It won’t be the feds who will come through. Hell, the best the clown car that is Congress can offer up are prayers – which I am not knocking – but God does, after all, help those who help themselves.
It’s going to have to be local municipalities who will have to shoulder the financial burden, whether it means putting up cameras, or hiring rent-a-cops to wander the halls of schools.
This leaves aside the whole question of whether we really want our schools to resemble something out of a police state.
Some have argued that teachers should be required to take weapons training and thus be in a state of constant vigilance. But there again, who is going to pay for the weapons and the training required?
Property taxes will have to increase – dramatically.
There may be no objections from many folks right now, but what about in the majority of American school districts where there have been no shootings?
Hell, folks today whine that “I have no kids in the damn school system,” as they traipse down to vote “no” on bond issues. If you can’t get them to support education in their own communities, why do you think these stalwarts will vote “yes” on any bond issue to increase security?
Sorry, kids, you are on your own.
But if it makes you feel any better, there are some truly patriotic, passionate and eloquent Facebook memes about the Second Amendment out there.
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Today’s Soundtrack
Enjoying The Celtic Woman CD “A New Journey” while I ponder how people’s minds work.
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Now on YouTube: Samuel Totten on Genocide
My interview with Sam Totten, who has investigated and written several books about the atrocities committed in Darfur, perpetrated by the Sudanese government. In addition, he is the chief editor of the journal Genocide Studies and Prevention.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlFPshuMQ5U
“On the Air with Richard S. Drake” celebrates 27 years years on the air in 2018.
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Quote of the Day
The most dangerous creation of any society is the man who has nothing to lose. – James Baldwin
rsdrake@cox.net