What It’s Like Here by Albert Burneko

I’ve had such a difficult time processing the events of this week, including the steady revelations of how abominably law enforcement and other officials in Texas responded to the shooting at Robb Elementary School. I can’t really imagine how much more difficult it would be if I also had offspring that I had to send out into an increasingly callous and dangerous society. Albert Burneko’s article, published by Defector, does make it a little easier for me to understand what it must be like for parents in this time and in this place.

This is What Happens When You Live Under Minority Rule by Anne Helen Petersen

To be clear about the foundation of that callous and dangerous society I note above, there is one major political party that has decided gun worship is more important that public safety, in part to appease a voting base of maniacs who have been manipulated for decades by the lobbying arm of weapons manufacturers. They are a small faction of the population, and yet they have an outsized influence on policy and regulation, often in direct opposition to the clear, measurable will of the people. Writing for her own substack, Culture Study, Anne Helen Peterson captures the fury I fell inside about this and expresses it far more thoughtfully than I am capable of doing at the moment.

In 1987, the federal government banned metal-tipped lawn darts because three children died from them while playing outside https://t.co/6rapomDMNp

— David Freedlander (@freedlander) May 25, 2022