America Will Survive!

As I write this, there has been two mass shootings that have taken many lives in the past 24 hours in our country.

Both shootings apparently by young men spouting hateful nonsensical white supremacist jargon. This is terrorism plain and simple. It is just as terrible as if it were a jihadist rampage from a Muslim whether home grown or not. Unfortunately, the white supremacists have the jihadists beat in the number of victims by quite a bit in the last decade. And while Trump could be blamed for spewing hatefulness, he is only a vector and not the source.

In my community yesterday, there was an annual event known as the “Back to School Bash.” It took place at our community center and athletic fields which are in an African American neighborhood. It was put on by our police with the help of several other non-profits and residents. As you can imagine, there were no shortage of armed officers in and out of uniform. I was helping in the water slide and bounce house area which was several hundred feet from the rest of the party. There were no officers around. I thought that some crazy guy could shoot a few dozen kids before the cops took him out.

Then I put it out of my mind. This was after the Gilroy and El Paso massacres.

Last night, my wife and I went to our local Arts Center for an exhibit opening. We looked at the art, spoke to the director, had a glass of wine, and milled around for a few minutes. There were 2 security guards at the center and in the outside gardens. I was a little surprised that…