They built this
guest post by Cliff Schecter
I’ve purposely not written about what happened at Planned Parenthood in Colorado Springs until now. As someone who proudly sits on the Boards of Planned Parenthood of SW Ohio and Planned Parenthood Advocates of Ohio (where I serve at Treasurer), and a longtime advocate for gun safety, I don’t think it would’ve been a good idea. My anger level had reached a point where I would have said a number of things I’d probably regret.
That’s because lying guttersnipes like Carly Fiorina & Ted Cruz played a role in this, as did edited-video-producing snake oil salesmen, back-bench Congressmen/women holding hearings doubling as witchunts and television & radio shows that don’t care a whit about the truth. They all work their hardest to incite riot, and then act shocked when the lone wolf–the crazy Christianist version of the suicide bomber–takes it upon himself to stop the atrocities only going on in their monologues and his head.
They built this.
Then there are our gun laws. Right wing lunatics who pretend to be our “representatives” wail about how this is a “mental health” issue, but then block the very background checks that would look at someone’s mental health records before selling them a weapon whose only purpose is to kill. So the same people who rile up murderers, arm them. Charming.
I can only speak for myself, and not any of the organizations where I play some role. I’m more determined than yesterday to make sure my kids grow up in a state, country and world where women have true equality, including the abortion rights they’re guaranteed by our Constitution. And gun laws that prioritize the safety of the rest of us, our “general welfare” and “domestic tranquility” as the document says, over “rights” of terrorists & murderers.
The French were out at cafes the night after the attacks. That seems like a model worth emulating.
—CS