I went to get the oil changed in my car and I stopped at the bank. Even though I try to stick to a 9 to 5 work week I had errands that I couldn’t put off anymore. Luckily it put me in a part of town I don’t always spend time in and was able to go to the Molly Pruitt Library afterwards. I couldn’t find it at first but eventually discovered it’s part of Roosevelt High School. It’s not the most architecturally pleasing building but it’s still and important part of the series.
Since it was on a school campus I was nervous. I didn’t want anyone to think I looked suspicious. Before I could go inside to tell the librarian who I was and what I was up to a campus police officer came up to me with a quizzical look on his face. I explained to him I’m a painter and painting all the libraries. He was pretty cool about it but wanted me to tell the officer inside.
I was a little taken aback by the fact that just inside the door to the library isn’t a librarian but a cop. In my entire K-12 years I never saw a police officer on school campus. Not once. I can’t help wondering if kids today grow up thinking that they’re bad because they’re policed all day at school. Again, I just wish we could pass some gun laws and get them out of people’s hands.
Since Uvalde there have been 20 mass shootings. I think today there were more. I have hit the part where you get numb and move on. Where you hear about more shootings but you can’t really process it. I saw an armed guard at the grocery store the other day and wondered if my grocery store is safe. When I got home today after driving around town, going to an oil change place, a bank, a high school, a library, and a covid testing place, I wondered how I got home unscathed.
Sometimes at night I hear the sounds of gunshots. A neighbor on social media says she thinks they come from someone near her, that they walk outside at night and fire into the air. Several months ago I was lying on the couch reading a book about 9:00 at night. I heard gun shots and it seemed as if the were coming from a car that was moving down the street. Moving in the direction of my house! I instinctively rolled off the couch onto the floor waiting for the sounds of shattering glass. Luckily the shots stopped before the car got to my house and I never heard glass breaking. After a while I went outside and saw I neighbor down the street on the phone. My next door neighbor was in his yard looking around. I called 911 and reported it as did several others. The cops eventually showed up and according to a neighbor said they thought it was ‘kids shooting into the air as they drove around’. It just reminded me of what bullshit our society has become with regards to guns.
I’m not really concerned anymore with what people think about my opinion. I’m not sensitive about conflict on this issue. I don’t care if you have feral hogs on your property and think an assault rifle is your only hope. I don’t care if you’re a gun collector or if you like to go shooting. And I don’t care if you feel that you need to protect yourself. Guns are not that important. They’re just not. I’m tired of the arguments. We have catered to machismo and arrogance, to uber masculinity and alpha dominance for far too long. It’s time to cater to something else. It’s time to cater to nurturing and caring, to empathy and sensitivity. It’s time to cater to creativity, to contemplation, to peace, serenity and stillness. I have a tendency to be accommodating and easy to get along with. I’m an easy person to talk to about sensitive issues, even politics. I like to listen. I don’t always need to be right. But I don’t care anymore. Guns need to go.