LISTENING SESSION & TOWN HALL

Today, I spent my afternoon watching the Listening Session at the White House with students, parents, and teachers from Parkland, Florida, Sandy Hook and Columbine. As you know I prefer to read the transcripts, but I am glad that I tuned in. During the meeting, Donald Trump had a card with notes on them. At first, I wanted to ridicule him because I really don’t think he should be president. However, we know that Trump cannot keep on topic for very long without repeating the same story over and over again. Whoever wrote those notes knows that Trump never seems to be empathetic to anyone and those notes were words for him to say to appear empathetic. I can appreciate that someone in the Trump administration thought of this.

The one line that I wish Trump had thought of on his own was, “I hear you.” It makes me fear that everything he said to the people today was just following orders and will never amount to anything. CLICK HERE if you would like to see what was in his notes paper.

The solutions that Donald Trump agreed with from today’s Listening Session are to arm teachers/school employees, stronger background checks, and mental illness. I am not sure what he meant with the mental illness, it sounded like want mental hospitals to be reopened so that people with mental illness could be committed. I’m not sure how that would work. Would my depression make me unable to own a firearm if I wanted one? Would my depression cause me to be committed to a mental institution?

I am glad that Donald Trump said he would look into banning bump stocks, but I am not sure if it will really happen. He told the NRA that they had a friend in the White House after he was elected. The NRA spent $11.4 million to help get Republicans into office and they spent $34.5 million in ads running against Democrats. The NRA has deep pockets and Trump going against the NRA seems impossible. CLICK HERE

CLICK HERE to watch the Listening Session.

This evening, I changed the channel from MSNBC to CNN to watch the town hall. I am so very proud of the students from Stoneman Douglas in Parkland, Florida. These kids are geared to make changes and I believe they will do what they set out to do. The NRA has a big fight ahead of them and I will gladly join them in the fight against the National Rifle Association. It is time for a change because what were have done in the past is clearly not working.

I have family members who are still in high school and I have friends who have kids who are in school now and some of their kids will soon be of age to be in pre-school. It makes me sick to my stomach when I read on twitter about kids as young as 3,4 and 5 practicing “bad man” drills by getting in the classroom closet, hold hands and play the quiet game. If that doesn’t break your heart, you might need to see the Wizard with the tin man.

At the town hall, tonight included students and teachers from Parkland, FL, and during the first half Marco Rubio, a Republican senator from Florida, Bill Nelson, Senator from Florida, Ted Deutch, Congressman from Florida. In the second half of the of the town hall, Sheriff Scott Israel, from Broward County, Florid, and Dana Loesch.

The students at times booed when they didn’t like what was being said on the stage. Most of the boos were toward Marco Rubio and Dana Loesch.

When Marco Rubio was asked if he would support the ban on assault weapons such as the AR-15, he kept repeating that a ban on weapons would do nothing. He said that banning the assault-style weapons would only ban 220 guns but there are 2000 other weapons that wouldn’t be banned. The students said that banning those 220 guns would be a good start, but Rubio would not agree.

Another student asked Rubio if he would stop taking money from the NRA, but again he would not answer. To me, that showed the real Marco Rubio. He will gladly take money from the NRA and pretend to care that kids were gun down in what is supposed to be a safe place. When Marco Rubio was speaking on the stage, you could tell he is a politician. He spoke down to these kids and he gave the same talking points over and over again. He could have had a puppet in his place and there wouldn’t have been anything different.

Senator Nelson was called on to answer questions, he spoke to the kids with respect and It wonderful. He said he would fight with the kids to get assault-style war weapons and that bump stocks should not be sold.

When Sheriff Scott Israel and Dana Loesch took the stage, Dana was booed. I will admit when any of the kids asked her a tough question they would boo at her answers. She blamed everything that happened on everything except guns.

The sheriff agrees with me that arming teachers would be a bad idea. Teachers are already buying classroom supplies with their own money and the school districts would have to come up with the money to buy guns. I wouldn’t want my kids (if I had any) in a classroom with an armed teacher. The idea of hiring retired military to protect the schools, but I think that’s a bad idea too. If the soldier has PTSD, the last place he should be is with kids. Military men and women already have enough on their plate trying to get help for themselves and people want them in the schools? I don’t think so.

Well, I think that’s about it. I will write more tomorrow. If you would like to become a patron, please check out my Patreon by CLICKING HERE

Peace, Love & Kitty Snuggles,

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