All The Wrong Things

Writing this post the night after the massacre in Uvalde, Texas. Where babies were killed by an evil man with an AK-15. 

I’m struggling with this. I’m mad, I’m sad, I’m shook. 

I couldn’t help but say to my child yesterday as he ran into our room while I worked: “Yay, you made it home” I caught myself as I said it, it felt strange to say. I’ve never said that before. It was strange, but it was also the truth. 

I’m angry. Why have we decided to focus on all the wrong things?

Parents upset that their kids had to wear masks, but not upset that they have “active shooter” drills? 

My son is in kindergarten, this is not what he should be worried about. The teacher sent the parents an email, she shouldn’t have to. “Safety” no longer means cuts and bruises, now it means bullets. She’s pretty much telling us she will put her life on the line for our kids. 

How is that okay? Teachers are disrespected and taken for granted by many, including both parents and administrators and they are willing to protect our children’s lives even if it means the loss of theirs. Yet we focus on the books they assign or read to our kids, because truth hurts more than ignorance.

Many get angry when they hear “defund the police”, they don’t realize the harm that is actually being done when we spend more on guns than services. The Uvalde District had doubled its funding for safety measures, received a grant of $69,000 for hardening measures. But yet, the officers that arrived on scene first didn’t act until border patrol agents got there, one hour later. When it came to spending that money, they focused on the wrong thing.

Ted Cruz, was caught saying that a back door was opened. According to him, if that door would have been closed things would have been different. Maybe if it wasn’t legal to purchase an AK-15 outside of a war zone, things would have also been different. 

Cruz called out Beto O’Rourke who is running for Governor for showing up at a press conference and calling out the current Governor, Abbott for doing nothing. Many other Republicans were upset and told him he (O’Rourke) was out of line for making this a political issue. I think they forgot they (politicians) made gun reform political the minute they started selling their votes to the highest paying gun lobbyist. 

Gun reform shouldn’t be political but yet it is. As is: Abortion, climate change, the books we read, who we love, healthcare, vaccines, voting and so many more. 

I’m having a hard time, with all of this. 

I can’t seem to understand. Why are we focused on all the wrong things? 

There’s so many other things in this country, in this world that need our immediate attention but yet we seem to focus on things that shouldn’t really be a “thing”. They should be common sense or if we consider the fact that most claim to be thinking of the greater good because it’s the Christian thing to do, then it would be the righteous thing to do. 

People are hungry, naturally we should provide food. However, inflation has increased food cost and most corporations refuse to provide their workers a livable wage. Many will go to bed hungry.

People are unhoused, let’s work on housing. Unfortunately, many do not like the sight of unhoused individuals in their communities and have no problem sharing their opinion when the local church or nonprofit is trying to build a shelter to get folx off the street. These are the very same people that always side with the local politicians, who always side with the big corporate developers trying to block a nonprofit housing developer from building low-income housing in that very same neighborhood. Many will remain unhoused and continue to be harassed by people that simply don’t want them to exist. 

There’s a formula shortage, simple let’s get more. Unfortunately, nearly 200 republicans voted against a bill that would help ease the formula shortage. I can’t help but wonder if these are the same politicians against abortion. But these are babies, aren’t they the same babies they are trying to protect from abortions? Again, we are focused on the wrong things. 

We can’t seem to get our shit together when it comes to protecting our planet, yet we have funded trips to Mars. Is that what we are hoping will be our Planet B? 

The Middle East is being devasted by the worst sandstorms they’ve seen in years, sending thousands to the hospital, causing life to literally stop but yet we are giving Billionaires more money to fund their pissing contest.

People are dying in India and Bangladesh due to major flooding, while here in California farmers and agricultural workers are facing the harsh realities of a drought that seems to have no solution in sight. While every part of the state seems to be on high alert because fire season, keeps coming sooner and lasting longer. But yet, let’s fund those trips to Mars.

Money and the high moral grounds it purchases has everyone focusing on the wrong thing, and turning a blind eye to the truth. 

Healthcare, pays so much money to cover as little as possible. It pays so much to exclude so many it deems unworthy of coverage; however, it charges us much for little coverage. We focus and restrict the treatments and procedures a patient can receive instead of the quality of care received. Many are ignored, pleas for assistance are ignored because the person pleading was the wrong color or gender, or worse yet uncovered. 

This doesn’t end there, doctors and nurses are becoming the new teachers. By this I mean, expected to work with so little, expected to make miracles happen with the little or no tools received. They are being disrespected by administrators and patients alike. They are burned out with no relief in sight. Why is it that in a time of need the ones we need the most are the ones that we take for granted the most? 

It’s to no one’s surprise that there’s a teacher, doctor, and nurse shortage. They’ve gone through hell since day one of this pandemic; as if they needed any more stress, we’ve also made their jobs political. 

It’s easier for you to buy a damn gun than it is to see a specialist, get a wheelchair, or get a medication or treatment approved.

We make you wait longer to buy alcohol, but you can enlist and buy a gun at 18. 

You can transfer to a different city or state if you were kicked off the force because you used excessive force or even killed someone while on duty. However, now in some states you can go to jail, lose your license, be sued, or be fined for performing an abortion on a woman that wants or needs one. 

Big pharma, well we already know about them. I mean these are the true kingpins but yet we go for the legal dispensaries. We know opioids kill but yet, we focus on the guy caught with a dime or an Eightball for his own consumption. Yea, let’s make an example out of him, and not those corporate guys that buy us lobster dinners and bankroll our re-election campaigns. 

They make so much from your consumption, they’ve made some dependent on their venom but yet will charge you triple that to get the drugs that will help you get clean. Let’s not even talk about the drugs, like insulin that help you stay alive.  They charge you so much, you ration your life saving drug, knowing that this is actually accelerating your death. We know who they are, we know which corporations are doing this but yet we focus on peddlers and not the producers. We focus on the wrong thing. 

We do that a lot. 

We focus on the wrong things. 

Voting rights were being eliminated,  but yet politicians decided to make daylight savings a “thing.” 

We discriminate asylum seekers, we tell migrants “don’t come”, but we don’t focus on the why those countries are in political and economical unrest. Here we focus on what makes us look good. Although, we seem to care for your safety, we will still put your kids in cages. But we’ll give them formula. Even though you did everything right, we’ll ignore your asylum pleas, because at the moment Ukraine is all the rave. (Don’t at me, I feel for Ukraine; however, I can’t pretend to not see the discrimination happening at the borders for those seeking refuge). 

Sometimes it’s convenient to focus on the wrong things. 

Other times we don’t focus at all.

A white woman disappeared, it made the headlines for weeks. Indigenous women are missing, Black and brown women disappear, Trans Black Women are killed almost on a daily yet the media doesn’t care. 

“The disappearances of people of color tend not to generate the same volume of media interest, despite their occurring at a higher rate. A report from the University of Wyoming found that 710 Indigenous people were reported missing from 2011 to 2020 in that state, which is where Ms. Petito’s remains were found” –

Katie Robertson, NY Times

We focus on the books our kids shouldn’t read because they talk about race, or whatever dumb stuff people convinced themselves is bad. However,  we don’t focus on the fact that as a first world country our reading rates are low. In 2019 we ranked 125^th in literacy amongst all other countries. Most folx in this country can’t read beyond a sixth-grade level, this cost the country trillions of dollars. But yet we are focused on taking books away from children, when in reality we should be ecstatic that they even want to read or know how the read in the first place! 

We do this because we don’t want our kids swayed, because we think that censorship is the way to keep our kids from learning what exactly? That the world is really not black and white, that there’s many shades of grey? That the US has done and continues to oppress, colonize, and just fuck up because greed and power are king? We want to hide from our kids that humans come in more shades than one? Pray to a different god or gods than the white, blue-eyed one you do? That others speak, love, identify differently than you do? That Freedom is a matter of perspective, privilege, and wealth for some. While the lack of it has ignited revolutions, created movements, and brought about brotherhood and sisterhood amongst those that are not afraid to hold the hand and feed those that look, think, love differently than them because freedom should not be in the hands of a few but in the embrace of All? Is this what we want to keep our kids away from? 

We’ve allowed our inaction to speak louder than our actions.