Enough is Enough, Fucksticks
Y' know... there's a lot been going on personally. More than I'll tell you and by tell you, I mean, just no. But enough to keep my mind spinning in about 5,000 directions all at the same time.
I know this blog has gotten some dust on it more than once and I seriously want to unfuck that (in case you're wondering, yes... today I'll be channeling Geoff Cooper as so often comparisons have been drawn between he and I... tonight, it's because, quite honestly, I'm fucking fed up).
I WANTED to create a blog solely thanking each and every one of you that has bought a print copy of an ebook of my novel, The Compound. It means more to me than you realize. In case you didn't hear about it on Twitter, Facebook or wherever... if you have read The Compound and go leave a review on Amazon.com as soon as I hit 20 reviews, I'll be doing a random drawing of 5 names for a giveaway of a very, very rare chapbook called New Dawn. Just shoot me an email at bob@whutta.com when you leave a review and you're in. Thanks in advance.
Now... onto the bullshittery that has pissed me off to ridiculous proportions on this fine evening.
First, let me say that I cannot even BEGIN to imagine the anguish, pain, and utter emotional destruction the parents of the children at Sandy Hook. If one of my children got killed in a school shooting, I'd be right in the looney bin, I have no doubt. The only thing that may pull me back is knowing my other child was still alive.
The shootings at Columbine were such an utter atrocity from two disturbed young men that it defies explanation.
The shootings at the showing of the Batman movie... again... such a disturbed individual, it's beyond definition.
My truest, deepest, sympathies lie with the innocents killed during those events, and the loved ones still alive to mourn the fallen for the rest of their lives.
I think there should be stricter gun control in our country. I am a gun owner. I wish I could afford more. I think it is our right as Americans and as our forefathers intended, to be bearers of arms. Let's get that stance out of the way here first.
I do not have any solution to the gun control issue. I have thought and thought about this... I think there should be stricter background checks and, hell, psychological evaluations may help. But if there is a mentally disturbed individual intending to do harm to a playground of school kids, or a theatre of movie goers, or a mall of shoppers... IT'S GOING TO HAPPEN. They WILL find a way.
If I had been locked the fuck up in a mental ward for years, arrested for standing in a public bus station and smearing peanut butter over myself and playing Fade to Black on a bagpipe in public... I could STILL go about 45 minutes in three different directions from where I live and purchase an illegal fully automatic weapon without trying very hard. People WILL find a way.
Okay... moving on.
What in the BLUE FUCK is wrong with some of the school officials?
Have you read THIS article?
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/bs-md-ar-pastry-student-appeal-20130610,0,3475829.story
Now this all happened a while back. The kid chewed a Poptart (don't cheat.. go look at the link and come back.. you'll see the chewed Poptart.
Officials won't expunge the kid's suspension record OVER A GODDAMN BREAKFAST PASTRY???
Recently there was another child who brought a capgun to school - sans caps - a silver Lone Ranger cowboy type pistol with a big bright orange cap on the end of it.
The Principal questioned him for hours until the child was so frightened he pissed himself.
Now... let me ask you this, if you're a parent. How would YOU react in that situation? I told my son if he ever gets questioned on anything at school for longer than ten minutes, he should tell the principal to call me.
I cannot possibly at this point, fathom the rage I would feel by finding out my son pissed his pants out of fear after being questioned by an authority at school for hours - AND I HADN'T BEEN CALLED.
I told my son I'd have probably been arrested in that situation and it was a very true statement.
Over the past several years there have been numerous news stories about children at school with gun-related... ANYTHING... where school officials went overboard in the situation.
Enough is enough.
If you are entrusted with a title in the school system, and you're entrusted with looking after my child during the school day... you damn well better have enough common sense to know when to freak out and when not to.
HERE'S A HINT...
A FUCKING POPTART isn't the time to freak out.
Neither is an orange tipped capgun. The kid brought it to school for show and tell.
The Lone Ranger movie is coming out very soon. Know what I wanted to be for a while as a kid? The Lone Ranger. I had capguns. Many of them. They were fun. I pretended I was the Lone Ranger and the Outlaw Josey Wales and Jeremiah Johnson and NOT ONCE DID I EVER THINK OF KILLING PEOPLE AT SCHOOL.
Neither are these kids. You... good people... have jumped the goddamn shark.
Elizabeth Monteleone on Facebook recently commented on an article about a deaf child who - while signing his NAME - got into trouble because the action of signing looked like a gun.
ARE YA FUCCCCCCCKING KIDDING ME?
They actually tried to make the kid change his name to something else so he could sign it differently.
You... officials... are absolute FUCKTARDS.
Enough is enough.
Stop panicking on absolute bullshit.
Grow a set and figure it out... when it's time to freak and when it's time to not. Deep down inside, you KNOW the difference. As much as I sympathize with all of the loved ones from the atrocities committed in our country over the past years... I'd be willing to bet my dick and a dollar that even THEY wouldn't be reacting the same way you all are over a breakfast pastry or a cowboy capgun.
So there's that...
and (still channelling Geoff Cooper for this evening)... there's my two cents... your mileage may vary.
Love you all.
b