Maybe the Mayans have it right.

The end of the world is supposed to be Dec. 21st. (Though there are contradictions to what they really meant if you read online.)

 But after Friday you have to wonder if maybe they didn't get it right.

I finally had to turn off the news. I watched The Thorn Birds Today. Yesterday i turned on The Big Lebowski on Encore and laughed my ass off. So if there is new Breaking News, i haven't heard it yet.

When the stories of these teachers and the principal and psychologist and little kids unfold with all those sweet little details about who they are and what they loved... it's too much .

What i keep coming back to is wondering what i would do if i were in the same position. Would i freeze? Would i panic and run? Would I..... oh i hate to even think of this.... but would i only save myself?  How could you know until you are in it? The teachers and the principal stories are amazing about how they put the kids first. At the very least i hope that the bashing of teachers and public schools might be put aside. The folks educating our kids in schools indeed really do put kids first. It's not just a platitude.

We've been down this road before. I remember watching obsessively the Columbine news for days. And i read the book  in one sitting when it came out. The pundit talk on the news is the same today so many years later.

So no, i don't think we will really see any meaningful gun control over this. We have short memories about this stuff, until anniversaries. We talk alot, but it goes away after awhile.

But then again....  maybe something will happen because of the age of these little kids.

These guns were legal and we do know that anyone who wants one will still find a way to get automatic weapons and that will be the argument. And maybe the argument against that thinking is not the one to be made.

I believe what's needs to be addressed is less about gun control and more about the mentally ill and the cuts in social services. So i have hope that that might be a place where Congress gets some courage.

And just as we did with 9-11....something needs to change. We have all these new rules about flying with no more than 3 ounces of liquid and taking shoes off and invasive body scans and we also have federal marshalls and The Patriot Act...lots of stuff happened to protect us from another 9-11. Maybe we need something similar in the schools. Deputize the right teacher who could pull this out (and the principal too maybe) where nobody knows that they are the marshall of the school, not even the teachers. One in each hall. Maybe that's the answer. More guns. (Isn't that weird? I can't even believe i'm saying it.)

Somewhere in all this news I heard or read a stupid story about someone believing we should arming ALL teachers with guns and i have to say, working in the union office, knowing some of these folks in the schools, that is so dumb and incredibly dangerous.  Most people are not equipped to carry out any mission that would be required in these situations. In fact, i have been afraid of some of our own members doing something similar to us in the office. Maybe i should not even add this because right now we are focusing on teachers who are the heroes. But having gun proponents offer this up as a solution make me crazy.

Here is what i thought too. I have long had a fear of flying. But i think now I might be more afraid of entering an elementary school.

I don't usually do this on the blog and i will change it soon. But i wanted to put it here for history sake. In hopes that one day i will come back and re-read it and remember how i was cynical that anything could really be done. And maybe, this time i will be wrong. Plus i thought some of y'all might want to talk about it too.