Police Woman Kills Man in Dallas

The recent killing of a man by a Dallas Police Officer resulted in many people rushing to judge the officer without evidence or facts. Please allow me to lay out what the media reported as of September 9, 2018.

An off-duty female Uniformed Dallas Police Officer entered what she believed was her apartment.
The apartment she entered is actually one-floor below her apartment.
She shot and killed what she thought was an intruder.
The Dallas Police Department turned the investigation over to the Texas Rangers for investigation.

The is no law against mistakenly entering an apartment that you believe is yours. If I ever received a call where a person entered what they believed was their own apartment and it was one floor below their actual apartment I would not arrest anyone. I would tell the 'victim' that he can request the District Attorney to file charges, knowing that it would be very unlikely that a charge would be filed.

There are no known eye-witnesses. The only person that may know what happened inside of the apartment is the officer who did the shooting. We do not know what, if anything, the man did that caused the officer to believe her life was in immediate danger.

Many people will say that the officer should have turned on the lights or should have recognized that she was not in her own apartment. I disagree. I don't live in the world of should.

If I came home and found my apartment door unlocked (which may have been the case) I would have been alarmed. If I came home and my key did not work, I might be frustrated enough to force open the door to 'my' apartment.

When inside my apartment, if I saw a man, I would believe that he was a burglar. It the lights were turned off, but I could see him, I would not turn on the lights because I don't want to become a clear target. I also would have had both hands pointing my weapon at him and not been able to turn on the lights.

Unless the officer confesses or creates some elaborate lie, I doubt that there is a winnable case. The evidence at the crime scene might contradict some elaborate lie, but if the officer's statement is clear and concise, I doubt that a case can be proven.

As for a charge of manslaughter, when an officer is the only witness and the officer probably was in fear of life, there is no crime of manslaughter.

I also believe that the Dallas Police Department will find cause to fire the officer, regardless of guilt.

In the Name of Patriotism

What is patriotism? What is meant by a love of America? What is America? Do we define America by out longitude and latitude? A country is defined by its character, its ideals, and what it stands for.

We love America because of its ideals even though we often fall short. For example, we tout our guarantee of a free press but are ranked 47^th among nations when ranking nations by the degree of freedom of the press. We value education but are also ranked very low among international test scores and we pay our teachers a very low salary compared with the 40 some odd nations that provide better compensation for teachers.

Today, millions put aside our ideals and lay claim to practical thinking. Nazi Germany and many other nations made such a claim when they found groups to blame for every ill in the country. Although Jews and Gypsies may quickly come to mind, nations have blamed scores of other groups for their nation’s woes.

Today, we toss aside the ideal of welcoming the poor of the world. We break treaties, agreements and our own laws. We certainly ignore moral teachings and moral laws. We do this in an attempt to eliminate foreigners, the newest group to blame for our personal problems and those of our nation. Some will argue that it is only the foreigners who enter America illegally that they blame, yet they also blame the refugees who seek asylum and are protected from prosecution for being on U.S. soil without documentation. Our laws forbid the deportation of those requesting asylum if they have a reasonable claim to asylum. That is our law.

That law does allow people to withdraw their asylum request. So we take away their children, do not tell the parents where their children are being held, and coerce parents to withdraw their asylum applications, voluntarily so they may be reunited with their children. We do not even keep track of the children so that they can ever be reunited. We deport parents without their children. 

This is the not the character or ideals of the nation we love. 

This will be a darker chapter in our history than the internment of Japanese Americans during WWII. This will be a darker chapter in our history that the Mexican American War. But it will pass. The arc of our history always bends toward justice.

Buy American!

Buy American!

I have no issue with the idea that when we purchase goods made in America, we help our country. More jobs with better wages can result if we buy goods made in America.

My issue is how we achieve our goal of buying American made goods. Taxing imports is not the path to take. Instead, we need laws that require businesses to pay livable wages and adhere to our environmental standards and employee safety laws regardless of where the work on items is done.

If companies know that it will cost almost as much to pay foreign workers or foreign companies as it would to hire American employees, millions of jobs would not be shipped to foreign countries. US companies remaining in other countries will force local companies to raise wages because they will be competing with American companies for workers. 

Fewer people will leave their home countries for better lives in America when they can earn a livable wage at home. More people in the USA and around the world will be able to afford American products.

Instead of companies being solely focused on their market price, they will become focused on higher quality goods, their relationships with customers and employees. The employees that generate the wealth of a company deserve a fair share of the profits.

My America (Why I long for action under Article V)

I recall standing in my 1st-grade classroom wearing a white shirt, and navy-blue tie and pants, facing the American Flag in the right corner of the room and pledging allegiance. Fort McHenry, the monuments and canon in Patterson Park and listening to stories of Baltimore during both world wars were also part of my life.

Today’s American is a different place, or maybe knowledge, education and lots of experience opened my eyes to the ‘good old days’ and how we came to be here today.

·     Gangbangers, cartel members in the USA, and drug dealers live every moment under the threat of violent death, so the death penalty is certainly not a deterrent.

·     Any criminal, insane person, or people looking to make some fast cash can walk into ‘gun shows’ and buy guns from ‘private parties’ without any background check. Of course, stealing guns that are legally owned is still in vogue.

·     People that fear no law have easy access to all the guns they want.

·     The media convinces us that our biggest problem is the police, using bad language, and finding men who behaved as was normal decades ago, and Hispanics entering the USA illegally. That’s it. Nothing else is a ‘big deal’. After all, most shooting victims are Black and that doesn’t matter unless a White person is the shooter. After all, most victims are involved in crime, except for the innocents slaughtered in the cross-fire.

Like trained seals, many people blame parents, a race, or a religion. Many otherwise sane people say that refugee children torn out of their mothers’ arms, shipped to an unknown location and put into chain link cages have a better life than they did with their parents.

Many Americans honestly believe a wall that can be scaled with a homemade ladder is the solution to problems caused by the 70-thousand pages of our immigration laws.

We abandoned participation in the U.N. Human Rights Council, the Paris Climate Pact, and criticize France, Great Britain, and Germany while we embrace North Korea, Russia, and China. We break international agreements instead of working to improve those commitments. We continue our war on poor people in the United States instead of a war on poverty. We decrease health care for our most vulnerable citizens.

This year, both Houses of Congress exceeded the president’s enormous request to increase defense spending and continue to buy weapons that even the Pentagon told Congress they do not want. As we invest in more weapons and bombs, we do nothing to raise our investment in education, leaving us at number  22 in the amount of money nations around the world pay teachers. (Our education rankings and the treatment of teachers is embarrassing in every category).

Millions of Americans are weary of our dynastic presidencies. We did not want another Bush or another Clinton. Millions are fearful of the tremendous cultural changes due to immigrants. Millions are tired of the political correctness that goes so far as suspending little children for using words found in the Christian Bible deemed to be hate speech. In fact, a grade school principal marched a student from the school cafeteria because she was reading the Bible. That principal threw the Bible into the trash and said it was filled with hate speech.

F

or all these reasons I wonder if we could actually use Article V of the U.S. Constitution and have our state legislatures call for a Constitutional Convention. Twenty-eight states have already requested such a convention and that means we only need 6 more state legislatures to make a formal request to meet the two-thirds majority that would require such a convention. Although the states have different Amendments in mind, once a convention is called for any specific purpose delegates at the convention can consider any number and any variety of changes to the Constitution. An Article V convention, in this fashion, could be a vehicle for a comprehensive rewriting of the Constitution, even for an altogether new Constitution.

Since most Americans know very little about their Constitution and their government, it could take a decade for such an event to occur. What is more likely is that the Congress would begin actually doing something to resolve the thorny issues of immigration reform, the right to bear arms, Social Security, and our bloated military budget.

Still, it is fun to think about a new Constitution or significant Constitutional changes to deal with the times and the issues of today, instead of operating as if it is still 1789.

The Nation of Laws

We are a nation of laws and the laws are clear.

This is today's battle cry for those against immigration. It is not very original.

Every German on trial for Nazi War Crimes justified their actions by hiding behind the law.
Every German citizen and citizens of occupied countries used the same claim when justifying that they did nothing when the Jews were rounded up and 'sent away'. Not one person knew or even suspected that the guards were cruel and inhumane, even to children.

I am sick of hearing that we are a nation of laws and the laws are clear.

I served as a law enforcement officer and know that discretion, good judgment, and justice are expected in America. Every single one of today's anti-immigrant crowd wants discretion exercised when they are stopped by a police officer for speeding. It is not that they don't get it. They get it. They just hate the changes in our society and many just hate Hispanics and Blacks.

Children in cages? It is enough to make me puke.

If we don't like people fleeing from hell-holes like El Salvadore, do something about the hell-hole. We created or at least contributed to the creation of these hell holes. We continue to exploit the slave wages in countries around the world. We have billions of dollars to spend at the movies and cry about helping the poor, even our own.

I am sick of the millionaires that decry the treatment of asylum seekers but don't hire attorneys to represent those asylum seekers. But mostly, I am sick of hearing about 'following the law'.

These same worshipers of the law don't want our asylum laws obeyed by our own government.
These same worshipers of the law don't want to recognize birthright citizenship.

If I lived before the Civil War would I have enforced the runaway slave laws?
Would these same 'lovers of the law' obeyed the laws during prohibition?

The 70-THOUSAND pages of immigration laws need to be changed and enforced in the most humane way possible. As for today, target the gangs and cartels. Little kids that arrive with parents seeking asylum should remain with those parents and the parents. Provide attorneys to represent asylum seekers and use GPS monitoring to keep track of them because none should be jailed pending the outcome of their cases.

Hop, Skip, Jump!

I've noticed many comments on Blog and news aggregator sites (such as Yahoo News) that use what may be called the "Hot, Skip, and Jump" to employ a historical fact to denigrate Muslims. To be fair, it is probably just ignorance, but I doubt many people bother to search for the West's view of Islam throughout history.

An example of the "Hot, Skip, and Jump" technique is when people blame the fact that Blacks were held in slavery a few hundred years ago to explain the lack of value millions of Black place on education. People ignore the history in between the end of slavery and today. During and immediately following the end of slavery, Blacks risked their lives in their quest for education. However, a simple historical line graph does not show that the closer we come to the time of slavery the desire for education becomes lower and lower. In fact, such a chart shows the exact opposite. By hopping over history, people think they have proven something.

In the case of Muslims and Western views, people 'hop' all the way back to the 12th Century and write comments about the Muslim invasion of the West. That is one hell of a 'hop'! Being curious, I began to ask myself questions. First on the list was, Was why do I have no memory of hate, fear, or prejudice against Muslims from my teenage years?"  In 1970 Muslims only accounted for 0.49% of the U.S. population and today they make up 3% of the population(Source). More significant is the fact that the movies portrayed Muslims in adventure stories that were exciting. Like all groups, there were 'good guys' and 'bad guys.' Bagdad looked like an exotic and exciting place. Most important of all, there were no news stories about Muslim terrorists. The media did not report that anyone was using the Koran to justify murder and a holy war against the West. Also, millions of Muslim refugees were not fleeing to Western nations. So what is missing as we hop over history?

A little research revealed some interesting facts about the West and Muslims. During both world wars, the West worked hard to enhance relationships with Muslims. 

As reported in the May15,2016 issue of Foreign Policy magazine: "Before the continent started banning hijab, European aristocrats used to change their names to Abdullah and Muhammad, and going to the local mosque was the latest trend."  

During the 1920s and 1930s, the governments of Great Britain, France, and Germany built Mosques. After World War I, people were looking to this religion of peace in the way some people in the 1960s looked at Buddhism. 

So we see the 'hop, skip, and jump across centuries of history to 'prove' that Muslims always invaded and terrorized the West. 

Certainly, we learn from history and hopefully apply the new knowledge when addressing the challenges of today and tomorrow. But searching for selective pieces of history, the Koran, the Bile, or Jewish teachings to prove something only proves how desperate and uncertain we are of our beliefs.

God Have Mercy on America

I cannot imagine creating a form to record information about children I am separating from their parents, without including the names and locations of the parents. It makes no sense!

Go to any Child Protective Services throughout America and the names and addresses of parents or guardians is standard information.

It reminds me of Hollywood movies where a kidnapped person is found in such horrible circumstances (held in an underground bunker with limited oxygen) that the hero shouts, “You bastard! You never intended to release her”.

Concentration camps, internment camps, the cages used in Hanoi Hilton during the Vietnam War all come to mind. I never believed such a thing could happen in America.

For decades, psychologists, sociologists, and historians pondered how a normal person in Germany could be glad when Jews were rounded up and placed behind barbed wire. How could otherwise good and decent people not only permit such a thing but how could they take joy in it? Well, we no longer need to study the history of those German people. We can look in the mirror and ask why.

Imagine that in America, the nation that championed human rights and especially the rights of children, tore toddlers away from their parents and their guardians to hold them as hostages so the adults would drop their petitions to be permitted to remain in America! If an author had created a work of fiction with such a plot we would have found the premise absurd.

We offer due process. We have open trials. We are a beacon to the world! At least that is what I thought.

Humanity is watching. God is watching. Reading the comments on news sites about this gross and vile action is sickening. So many people love the idea and see no problem that our government did not even bother to record the names and locations of parents/guardians when they tore the children from their arms.

May God have mercy on America. I can no longer ask God to bless America. God Bless America.

Heard in Mexico - July 2018

I saw photos of children in cages! Is America really doing this? 

Is America separating children from their parents and sending them to the other end of the country? 

Is America really telling people they can have their children returned if they give up their claims to asylum?

Our own Mexican election results make us wonder if we will become Venezuela.

In Del Rio, Texas they elected a man who marched in protests wearing high heels. He is openly gay and they elected him. We live in a time that nobody would have believed 10-years ago.

Like Trump, our new president says so many contradictory things that nobody can keep up.

We read that Trump hates France, England, and Germany, but loves Russia and North Korea. Is that even possible?

In What Country have I Awakened?

Our asylum laws, similar to those of most civilized nations, were prompted after World War II. The Nazi death camps, our own internment of Japanese Americans, our rejection of boatloads of Jewish people fleeing Nazi Germany and reflecting on the morality of not protecting people persecuted because of their politics, ethnicity, religious beliefs or gender prompted us to do the right thing. We created laws to protect those seeking asylum.

People can seek asylum in two ways. They can apply for entry into the United States from almost any country. The millions that languish in refugee camps can also make application for asylum. This process can easily take a decade before a decision is made. 

Our law also allows people to apply for asylum while on U.S. soil. If they have a reasonable claim to such status, they cannot be deported until their case is adjudicated, which can take decades. Our laws also guarantee that those granted asylum cannot be punished for illegally crossing our border.

There is no requirement that a person must apply for asylum at the first ‘safe’ country they enter.

Maybe a national debate will change those laws. But today, we should obey the letter and the spirit of those laws.

The disgusting and immoral occupant of our White House found a way to reduce the number of asylees. He simply kidnaps their children, holds them in far away detention facilities, holds their parents in detention facilities at our border and offers to free the children if the adults will cancel their asylum request and leave the United States of America. We are taking children away from parents and using them as hostages!

This is all so despicable and immoral that I keep hoping it is all a bad dream. In what country did I awaken?

On this 4^th of July, I will read the poem, “The New Colossus” to myself while sitting at the edge of the Rio Grande and try to understand what happened to my country.

The New Colossus

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

Emma Lazarus

Solve the Issue of Those Seeking Asylum

1. Violate our laws.

2. Deny protection to people requesting asylum.

3. Separate children and parents by great distances. Hold the     children as hostages.

4. Offer to return children if asylum case dropped & agree to deportation

5. Both legally and morally reprehensible.

We turned away Jewish families seeking asylum from Nazi Germany's holocaust. After that disgusting decision and after reviewing the internment of Japanese-Americans, we created laws to protect those seeking asylum. We now violate those laws because we don't like the color or ethnicity of those seeking asylum.

Fear of change is our motive.

Happy Father's Day!

Victor, where-ever you are, I wish you a happy Father's Day.

You made me question my own image when I met you on the shore of the Aegean Sea on the Greek Island of Kos. I vividly recall the sound and smell of the waves as they hit the beach and the laughter of your children as they played in the small tent. Your words still haunt me. 

"When bombs drop and destroy the house next-door we do not know if they are barrel bombs from Assad, missiles from the U.S., or bombs from Russia. We only know that our neighbors are dead and we could just as easily been killed. Grocery stores are gone. Water is gone. People that I knew are hanging from lamp posts and trees. There was even a human head lying in the town square. Gangs roam the streets and shoot people at random."

You did not abandon your family, but you protected them as you walked all the way from Syria to Turkey. You hid to avoid the roaming gangs. (The U.N. estimated over100-waring factions in Syria). You scavenged for food and water to feed the children. You carried the girls as you ran into abandoned buildings when bombs suddenly started dropping. You negotiated with smugglers who stole what little remained of your possessions, and you held the girls tight in a tiny, overloaded boat. The day after you waded to shore, the Greek military picked up you and your family. (Thank God that the Greek Military did not even consider separating you from your children). You were released and told to the daily list outside of the police building for your names and the date and time of your final interview that determines if you can continue your journey.

You had no idea what awaits you. You believe that there will be work for you in Germany if you can make it to Germany. There will be opportunities to put food on the table and your girls will live in safety. 

During my life as a Father, I never had to sacrifice for my daughters. Not really. I like to think that I would have been brave enough to protect them and to leave all that I know, for their sake. 

Happy Father's day. I wish you well.

Nobody Seems to Care about the Children, Just the Right to own lots of Guns

When I visited Germany, Greece, and Hungary, I met people from across Europe. Lunch with a group of law enforcement officers from Sweeden and Norway, dinner with a group from Holland, another day sailing with people from Italy, France, and Great Britain all had one common denominator. Someone always asked why we need so many guns in America and why we think that owning guns is more important than the loss of innocent lives. I had no answers, but since that time I've spent a lot of time reading and researching facts about guns in America.

Disclaimer: as a person who spent over 35-years in law-enforcement, I was part of a gun culture. However, that experience also resulted in seeing the aftermath of shootings and suicides and witnessing what officers feel after taking a life. I spent a night in the hospital when my partner was shot and expected to die. With less than a year on the job, I went to my first police funeral when a 24-year old member of my squad was gunned down. So, my opinions were not formed in a vacuum.

The fact is that every other industrialized nation survives without the open gun ownership allowed in America. Some people point to the Mexican murders and say that this is what happens when the average citizen cannot own guns. I reject that premise. Almost all cartel murders involve people in the drug trade of those combating the drug trade. Also, I note that shootings of school children are almost unheard of in Mexico. Furthermore, I do not see citizens who are licensed to carry firearms doing a damn thing about deterring the drug trade. Imagine the impact if a dozen armed citizens began standing on every drug-corner in the inner-city with cameras to intimidate dealers and buyers. But the truth is that our gun owners flee to the suburbs.

The bottom line is simple. We have guns because we love owning guns. Gun possession is a fetish that gives the illusion of power. We want those who are mentally ill and those with criminal records to buy all of the guns that they can carry at our gun shows, where private sales (not requiring any background check) flourish. I know that we want it because we sure do not protest and demand that a law is enacted to prevent such sales.

Our answer to gun deaths is 'more guns,' and we blame victims for not being armed!  We provide rocks for school children to use against an armed killer. We talk of arming teachers and pretend that in the confusion and chaos of the murder of children by a gunman, more gunfire will not cause additional innocent deaths and that the police will magically be able to distinguish between an armed teacher and an armed assailant.

There is no answer to the question, "Why do we value gun ownership over the lives of innocent people?"  

Rational Thoughts not Allowed

The knife-wielding terrorist in France injured four-people and the Internet is abuzz with people blaming Islam. May I offer a few facts and thoughts? I examined the most recent year of facts. Let me share. I invested 20-years of my life developing and implementing crime analysis processes for a major police agency to identify the most likely places and people engaged in violent crime. So, I think in analytical terms.

In France there were 8.5 million Muslims in 2017. 

Eight different Muslims engaged in terrorist attacks during that same year. 

So, 0.00009% of a group committed terrorist attacks in France during 2017 and people conclude that the Muslim faith is responsible. 

Why would we not conclude that since the remaining 8,499,992 Muslims did not engage in terrorism that the religion cannot be the problem? If the religion were the problem, why do we not see millions of terrorist acts in France?

I firmly believe that we don’t want to think. We want to keep it simple and find one culprit to blame?

However, by avoiding a rational analysis to find causes for the 8-people to commit acts of terror we lose all hope of finding a solution. Were they from other countries? Were they radicalized in France? What caused such profound hate?

In the USA we not only look for a simple ‘answer’ that requires no thought, we also want our answers to confirm our fears and beliefs.

Millions of Americans fear the loss of gun ownership and believe that the government should not further restrict guns.

Millions also believe that severe mental illness and fanatics are the cause of mass shootings.

Yet, these same millions and the NRA want every Muslim, terrorist and mentally ill person to be able to buy large quantities of guns and ammunition at gun shows across America. How does this make any sense?

My point is only that we need to think and form opinions based on rational analysis of facts. 

If you are against thinking and facts, please tell me why.

The Real Truth is Evident

As 400-people from Latin America sit at our border and try to decide if they will legally apply for asylum in the United States, our real views about Brown people come into sharp focus. For decades most Americans that express anger about illegal immigrants have qualified their views by insisting that they are not prejudiced or bigots and welcome those that follow the rules and enter the United States legally. They insisted it was never about bigotry or prejudice. Today, the truth is coming into sharp focus.

Four-hundred people came to our border with the intention of legally walking up to our inspection station to request asylum. This is exactly what our law requires. 

This legal way of entering the United States has revealed that our real concern was not about following the rules or obeying our laws.

Read the comments on blog and news sites. Read the news articles, watch the television reports and listen to talk-radio. Nobody is concerned about an illegal entry. The gloves are off, and the objection is Race and fear based. Nobody is saying “If they just followed our laws I would have no problem.”

My government’s response is to separate families that apply for asylum to discourage them from even making such an application. There is absolutely no justification for taking children from parents or separating other relatives.  While it is not illegal, it is not required by law. Apparently, my country needs a law to keep families together. 

My parents and the entire WWII generation would never believe that America would accept a government that forces families to separate. I am not talking about deportations that result in separations. I am talking about separating families that are legally on U.S. soil. I am talking about an America that uses the threat of separating mothers from children to intimidate people! My parents would have been as disgusted as I am.

Another truth also seems to be emerging. Our president and millions of other Americans have ranted about the Mexican drug cartels, the murderers, rapists, gangsters and the narco-control of the Mexican government and now they say that Mexico is perfectly safe and that people fleeing such violence elsewhere should seek sanctuary in sunny and safe Mexico. I guess Mexico is not such a bad place after all.

The one lie that persists is that we will one-day return to a White American where millions and millions of us will find good factory jobs and very few foreign products and an even better standard of living.

Caravan? Another lie.

The U.S. media, 90% of which is owned by 6 entities, manipulates us again. The White House and President Trump’s tweets alarmed millions of Americans about a ‘caravan of over a thousand-people headed across Mexico to the USA’ and reported that most would seek asylum. The facts do not support the fake news.

Since 2010, people have participated in this yearly event to draw attention to the dangerous situation in Mexico for those trying to cross the country. Many participants dress as ancient Biblical people and some carry crosses as Jesus carried a cross. It is not an invasion of the United States or a mass of refugees intending to enter our country. It is a protest against Mexico! It happens every year.

These protestors do not even come to Mexican cities on our border. The tweets and news reports were designed to play to our fears (when did we become cowards?).

Today, the Mexican media shrugged its shoulders and reacted to the ridiculous tweets and American news reports by explaining the truth about the ‘caravan’. Mexico and Latin America remain amazed at how hard the media and our politicians work to scare the American people.

Today, President Trump said that he will cut aid to Honduras if they do not stop the caravan. There is no caravan to stop. When they keep to their plan and do not come to the USA, Mr. Trump will declare victory. How sad that millions of Americans will applaud him.

By the way, if less aid is sent to places like Honduras, the poor will have even less hope and be incentivized to give up and come to the USA.

I wonder if the fake-news and tweets will make people from Honduras aware that they could arrive in a huge group and gain legal status in the USA by making credible claims as refugees? The reckless attempt to play to his base might become a self-fulfilling prophecy. 

School Shooting and Bad Solutions

Yes, we should have a safety plan in the event of an armed person entering school grounds. Sheltering in place and evacuation plans at every school are warranted. However, arming teachers and providing students with rocks to throw at an active shooter are ludicrous ideas.

We are scaring the children. The odds of an active shooter are minuscule, considering that there are over 95,000 public schools in the United States. The adults should not over-alarm the children.

In the confusion of an active shooter, armed teachers is a terrible idea. The noise of gunfire in an enclosed building, the smoke, the screaming, the people running make armed teachers a danger to the children. Police officers have no way to distinguish between an armed teacher and an active shooter. Lastly, trained law enforcement officers often do not hit the suspect under the stress of an active shooter: imagine how armed civilians will perform. Bullets flying everywhere is the last thing that is needed.

The idea of arming children with buckets of rocks to throw at a shooter is so ridiculous that it beggars the imagination. Someone recently watched the comedy, “Support Your Local Sheriff” where the hero threw rocks at an armed bad guy and ran him out of town. School shootings is not a western or a comedy. It involves the death of children and the idiot who suggested giving each classroom a bucket of rocks should be run out of town by rock-throwing citizens. Ask a parent of a 1^st grader if they want their children to confront an armed killer and throw rocks at him as the killer is blazing away with an AR-15.

I will give anyone a bucket of rocks and borrow an AR-15 so we can test the ‘bucket of rocks’ solution.

Like a fire drill, each school should be prepared for the remote possibility of an active shooter. Children should be assured that they are safe and it is very unlikely this will ever happen to them

The Next Step: Fake News

The polarization and extreme positions in our nation received a huge boost when President Donald Trump cried out “Fake News.” Millions of Americans now label any fact that they do not like as fake news, completely dismissing any actual thought or debate.

Certainly, throughout history news stories have been exaggerated or built upon lies. We’ve gone to war because of such stories. But labeling a story as ‘fake’ should at least require the reasons a person holds such a view. But, not in today’s world. It is simple, convenient, and is the ultimate answer for idiots. Somehow branding facts as ‘fake’ seem to satisfy millions of people that their views are still perfect.

While we worry about foreign nations that interfere in our elections, we ignore the fact that we are killing democracy and capitalism. Russia, China, North Korea and other nations need do nothing to harm America because we continue to do it to ourselves.

If decriers of fake news provided specific reasons that a story is false, they would do America a great service. Pointing out exaggerations, missing facts, incorrect facts, flaws in opinion polls, and childish mistakes in stories, without rancor or condescension, might compel news outlets to do a better job. For example, a recent story about the murder of a mother and father at a college stated that the college was in Michigan and also in Illinois. That degree of poor fact gathering and sober editing calls into question what other parts of the story are wrong. Simply shouting, “fake news” is not helpful.

We need to find common ground with fellow Americans. This does not mean that we surrender our core values, but we must consider alternative views and compromise extreme positions.

Are Your Credible?

Check the facts before reposting!

Making informed decisions and persuading others to your views requires credibility and nothing destroys credibility more quickly than unknowing publishing lies. With products like Photoshop and with 'build your own website' tools that even a 4th grader can follow, we need to make a little effort to check the facts.

There are enough facts about hot-button issues like police shootings, immigration, DREAMERS and the building of a border wall for anyone to justify and make persuasive arguments that support their beliefs. Posting lies, fake photos, rumors and the like only take away from your opinions. The darn trouble is that researching real facts takes effort and reposting everything that comes your way that supports your opinion is simple. (I leave 'simple' to those who are simple-minded).

Emails, Tweets and Facebook posts can easily be verified by visiting websites like https://www.snopes.com/, http://www.politifact.com/, etc.

Controversial photographs that do not include the date, location and event should never be re-posted. Those with this basic information can be checked in the same way that you can check emails.

Youtube videos are often misleading as are videos from news outlets. Try turning off the volume and let your mind determine what is happening. Consider what could have happened before the camera was turned on and try to draw several conflicting conclusions. Then watch the video with the sound turned on - paying attention to adverbs and adjectives. (Adverbs and adjectives in articles and speech often influence what we conclude).

Always consider the source. GOOGLE the name of websites and media outlets with the words: conservative or liberal.

Photoshop is used by millions of people who do not really know more than the basics, so their lousy alterations and additions to the original photos are easy to spot. Shadows and reflections in windows are often dead giveaways. Protest signs are altered and sometimes the sign itself is made larger so that more words can be put on the fake sign. When this is done by a novice the edge of the added portion may not line-up with the original sign and fingers disappear. The bottom line with controversial photos with a political agenda is simple: no location, date or event = never repost it.

On the other hand, posting lies that support your cause will make the friends who support the same cause happy and they will quickly repost it.

Passionate or Closed Minded

Perhaps it is our freedom of speech and freedom of expression, but we have moved from being a passionate people to be a polarized and closed minded people. We march in lock-step without genuine individual thought. We seek out and find sources of news, polls, and studies that support our convictions instead of testing our convictions by examining evidence that supports other views and beliefs. Fear drives our beliefs. In these United States of America, the home of the brave, it seems that we are afraid of everything. When did we become so afraid of everything?

We fear words! People cannot be old. People cannot be handicapped.  (My computer’s grammar checker just warned me about the word ‘handicapped’!  (Warning: “In this context, some readers may find handicapped biased or non-inclusive. Consider replacing it with a more neutral term.”). Every child receives a trophy because scores no longer matter. Children who call other children a name are bullies (which seems like name calling itself). The bloody noses and black-eyes of my youth, my experience of getting back up and fighting a bigger and stronger kid could result in expulsion from school or criminal charges. Why are we surprised when 30-year olds still live with mommy and daddy?

Read comments posted on news sites and count the number that is fear-based. Better still, count the number of comments that suggest an open-minded response. (Counting those willing to consider other opinions, or at least respecting those opinions are so few that counting those comments will be easy).

We dig in! We copy and paste bald-faced lies on websites and emails if they support our beliefs. A free and simple fact check on Google would reveal most of these copy and paste stories are lies. If a politician that we detest is the subject of some horrendous lie, we grab it and send it to our friends and post it on social media. I used to believe that people simply did not know how to find fact-checking websites, but I was wrong. People fear to discover that the latest gossip or chain-mail is a lie. A very close friend once sent me this e-mail: “I am not going to send any more of these posts to you because you always fact-check and discover they are hoaxes or lies. I will just send them to my friends and family.”  Think about that! I will only send hoaxes and lies to my friends and family!

Get past our fear. Remember that we live in the real world. Sometimes, what seems logical is not supported by evidence. Deliberately challenge our beliefs by searching for evidence that supports an opposite belief. Compromising to form laws, without compromising our core values is key to a working democracy. Anti-capitalists predicted that democracy would eventually become so polarized that the government would fail to function. Our first president, George Washington, feared political parties because they might bring about people more loyal to Party than Country.  Anti-capitalists also predicted that investors and owners of businesses would pursue profits at the expense of the workers. Labor is a large expense, so let’s buy workers in other countries.

We face serious problems (another inappropriate word- I should use ‘challenges’ so as not to upset anyone or cause worry and the hand-wringing). Serious problems require serious people that understand the problems. Bumper-sticker solutions need not apply.