Robb Elementary in Uvalde, Texas

Lyrical Mess-up

I don't know if I ever told you but I am terrible with lyrics and tonight was another prime example - I began singing "Ramble On" by Led Zeppelin to my parents and knowing me of course I messed it up when I sang, "Ramble on - walk my wayyyy" LMAO! There's like issuessss LOL!! Apparently I wasn't even close. But I have a tendency to sing what I think a song lyric sounds like and nine times out of ten - I am soooo wrong. 

Robb Elementary School Shooting

Please allow me to first start off by sending my condolences to the families of those who lost their children at Robb Elementary. 

Next I would like to send my condolences to the families of the two teachers that lost their lives protecting those children.

They are forever heroes in our eyes.

Now I am not a parent or a sister or an aunt or a godmother but I have felt the same rage as so many around are feeling and expressing.

I'm absolutely disgusted by these school shootings. I am disgusted by the injustice of the children. I am disgusted by the lack of fulfillment. I'm appalled. I'm ashamed. And it's sickening.

And what? Like words are going to make it all better. Take action - do something.

During the last shooting an announcement was made that there will be change. And the one before that, the same message - also promising change. And the one before that and so on and so forth.

Why were these broken promises not fulfilled? Over years and years and years?

Why were the proper safety protocols not put into place?

Why didn't we make any visitor at EVERY school - elementary, middle school, high school, and even college - be buzzed in before the door even opened?

Security looked through a camera and asked simple questions like who they were and specifically the name they were here for?

Why didn't we have metal detectors in every school when you walk in?

Why didn't we have a security guard with a wand?

Why didn't we have school officers? Dedicated school officers on duty at every school?

Why?

The possibilities are endless for the actions that could have been put into place and yet - here we are again - but this time it was elementary school students.

Do you even know what the means?

Do you know that these children were 10 and 11 years old and maybe younger?

How many more children have to die until a permanent solution is done?

Are you going to wait until it's a first grader? How about a kindergartener?

When are you going to say enough is enough?

Maybe this isn't being put clear enough to you - what if it was your own child?

What if a school shooting happened at a different school just a few miles from where your child was? I can almost certainly guarantee that after that - that school where your child is will suddenly be enough to have security - to have protection - to have barriers.

And I hate to sound like that but it's the truth - this may not be your child but it is a child. Our future children who all deserve a chance. They wanted a chance to grow up, to have their birthday, to go to their first dance, to compete in their first sport, to graduate.

Can you imagine being the officer on duty that his wife was one of the slain teachers? Can you imagine rushing to do your job and praying the whole way there it wasn't her - to find that your spouses life has been lost? Over something that was said to be taken care of years ago - that this would never happen again and it continues to happen.

Where was the initiative? Where was the change? Where? I don't see it...regrettably it comes only after the shooting has happened - then those schools get protection.

How about a proactive approach instead of a reactive one? After is too late. After the fact - is too late. It only prevents it in the future when we probably could've prevented in in the past.

These are lives your talking about. These are not just things that need fixed in a city oh lets put it on the back burner right now. NO! This is something that should've been taken care of in every school a long time ago and there is simply no excuse. We are forced to pay for all sorts of things but not for something as serious as this? This needs to be our focal point. Did you hear the number of schools that this has happened to already just this year? And we are not even six months in yet. 

The blood is on your hands. For the lack of compassion. For the lack of detail. For the lack of planning. For the lack of doing.

And I swear to God if I hear one more time that the shooter was someone being bullied. Open your eyes! If you look back at almost every school shooting it's mostly because they were bullied and guess how they handle it? They come to school with a loaded gun and start killing.

Why are we not stopping the bullying? As adults why are we not saying something? Why are these kids - no matter who they are - who their parents are - whatever the case may be - why are we not persuading these kids to stop?

You cannot tell me it goes completely unheard and unseen by every single person? Every set of eyes, every set of ears. Get the heck out of here!

Maybe we need to do a better job at helping our teachers. Our teachers are dying over this, literally. And they are just trying to do their job. I don't know if this is a thing but maybe we need to start sending the counselors out to do rounds - if they don't already - talk to students about bullying, more often than you already do. Start asking questions if they've seen bullying happening and by whom? As an adult we obviously are not going to repeat who said what. But those children will be pulled in, they will be punished, their parents will be pulled in, they will be lectured. And if they don't know want their children to attend your school anymore because you lectured them about their child bullying another then fine - let them go elsewhere but you know what - you might've just stopped a child from turning into a killer.

This is not a tattle tale - this is simply a precaution - a step in the right direction to catch it early or put a rest to an ongoing battle. It's about not losing your cousin, or your best friend, or your favorite teacher. It's about helping to protect one another and ourselves.

These children being bullied are humans. They are human beings just like you and me and they have feelings too. They don't deserve or want to be treated that way - like they are dirt on a rug. And some may argue why don't they come forth - why don't they say something? The same reason most of us don't speak up in a work place - fear. Fear of losing our jobs, our money source, fear of retaliation. Well it's the same thing for a kid - fear. Fear of retaliation, being beat up more, or beat up in general, picked on more.

That's why we need to come together and help each other. Everyone needs to be a part of it because everyone needs to be a part of it - it's a big deal and a big problem. Begin reevaluating what schools have what. And then what do you feel you need to protect them. All of them. What does a life cost to you? Now double it, triple it, and quadruple it. How many students are in each building?

Show a list. Show a list of how many schools are done already vs how many aren't. Show a chart. Make a line graph or a bar graph or a pie chart if you have to. Then tell us why. Explain why. Why is this school on hold? What planning stage in this one in? Give us an update. It's our right to ask questions and we deserve answers.

You are leaving the door open to take our children. Our children. The ones we made, the ones we provide for, the ones we love. 

We need to all be protecting one another and just like in a company it's never going to work unless it works from the top down. Everyone has to believe in it and put the work in to get it done. 

I watched someone on TV saying to take the guns. I'm sorry for saying but taking the guns away is not the end solution to this. If you banned guns, if you stopped them from being sold legally, if you came to every house and took every single firearm that a person had - the killings still wouldn't stop.

They'd just get them as they are now - off the streets, off the market, from someplace else. That's not a permanent solution. That's not even a band aid. If you bully a child enough they will kill because they've been pushed to what they feel is their limit and now they are acting because they feel they have to or they need to or whatever goes through their mind and just like an adult - no matter if it's a bullet or a blade - when someone wants to kill, they will.

As gruesome as it may sound the reality is they'll use anything, whatever that can get their hands on. A gun, a knife, a hammer, an axe. They'd use a butter knife or a bread knife if they could get it to claim a life. That's why taking the guns won't stop the killings.

Just like we learned in school - you need to start at the source. Start from the bottom and shut it down. How do you stop a weed from growing? You don't pluck its head off and hope it doesn't come back. You don't break off the stem and think ok I'm good. You yanked the roots up out of the ground to get it to stop.

Intense, extensive bullying initiatives need put into place whatever those may be and you need security at all your schools. A buzzer with a camera - the doors needs to be locked at all times - verification when you come in, inside another set of doors (probably with bullet proof glass) - walk through a metal detector - have a school police officer with a wand wave you down. Then maybe have another school police driving around the buildings or sitting nearby.

It would be quick for kids to walk through a metal detector. But those extra five or ten minutes of going through the entire almost booking process of a visitor - that added time could save five or ten lives, probably more if we are being completely honest. What does time cost to a life? Where's the comparison?

How far is too far for a life? Well you tell us. Innocent children are being slain - at a younger and younger age and at unprecedented rates. 

And yeah it sounds like a prison and it might look like one too but it's our duty to protect these kids at all costs. They aren't always asking to go to school but they are asking to go home safely. They don't see or know anything better than that - than to go home and pick up their basketball, see their mom and dad, play with their dog, start their homework. That's what they want. They have that right.

A man who lost his daughter told cameras, "We just don't want her to be another number." 

Please do something.

And yeah maybe it won't be perfect. Yeah maybe even after all this it won't completely stop but it will significantly lower the chances.

Someone needs to start an initiative - a project - if there hasn't been one already. Hell I'd run it! I'd make a list of every school in every state. And visit each one to see what they need and what we have. And what should go where. This is how passionate I feel about this subject - is that me - essentially a nobody - would be willing to make a change. That's how strong I feel about it. And yeah does that mean every school will be protected tomorrow? No. But it's better than the alternative - taking action after the fact.

Adding to my prayers is Joe Garcia and as well as his an Irma's four children. For those who haven't heard Irma was one of the slain teachers who lost her life protecting her students at the shooting. Joe is her husband who later in the day after placing flowers at the school for his wife - died of a broken heart. This left their four children now orphaned. It's just horrific - absolutely horrific!

Special thanks to the man who is making all of the caskets for the children to the parents specifications all for free and a special thanks to the funeral home near the school who is also holding all the funerals for free.

Okay I think I'm done with my rant - I'm sorry! My head is pounding and I am just completely heartbroken for all these folks and not just for Texas but for every parent or family member that lost a loved one in all the school shootings. This was a trigger for those parents from the tragedies before. It was the trigger for the parents who rushed to their school to find it wasn't their child. It's a trigger for America and this needs special attention and marked as the top priority.

2100+ words later OYE! I'm sorry! I probably rambled too, sorry. 

Before I move on with the rest of my blog, all I ask is please take a moment of silence with me now for the families going through this tradegy. 

In other news:

A spider came down beside my head while I was in the bathroom at work. I wasn't ok with it. I couldn't scream, I couldn't ask for help - so I literally had to kill it myself. I was terrified. LMAO! And when I tell my parents the story you can guarantee I'll tell them it was a big one when in fact the tiniest one is too big for me.

Jurassic Park: Dominion

As excited as I am for the newest installment of Jurassic Park it'll be a little different this year than all the others I went to see on opening night. But I have to tell you that if you haven't see the trailer yet - watch it - it's going to be the most action-packed one yet! Holy Crap! It looks so good and I literally can't wait. Comfy seats, the smell and taste of movie theater popcorn, the volume of the speakers.

Speaking of movies Top Gun starring the amazing Tom Cruise came out today!! && to boot Harrison Ford has announced that next year he will be returning in a new Indiana Jones movie! Yee-haw!!

Stay safe out there && as always, I appreciate it!