America to Uvalde, Texas - "F$%k You"

I found it entirely appropriate last night that the Season Finale of “This Is Us” was on last night.

Why you ask?

Because with the 2nd deadliest school shooting happening yesterday on America’s soil – THIS IS US.

This is how we are defined.

We have identified ourselves as a Country that has a mass killing problem, and because of our bottlenecks in Washington – we can’t seem to figure out a way to solve this problem.

I’ve personally identified that way since 2/14/2018 – the day of the Parkland Massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School where 17 people were killed and where my daughter was a freshman and hid in a closet for 2 ½ hours.

And in essence by identifying this way, we told Uvalde, Texas “Fuck You”.

And it wasn’t just 1 “Fuck You”. 

It was 21 “Fuck You’s”, of which 19 were children under 10 years old.

We allowed this to happen.

Every single politician, regardless of which side of the aisle you sit on has blood on their hands.

They have been too busy waiting for the next sound bite to drop to use in their next campaign to be worried about some kids in school.

So “Fuck You” Uvalde, they said.

They said let me waste some time with things people don’t really care about or things that have a slight chance of happening – things such as the “Build Back Better Plan” or the “Parental Rights Bill” (AKA “Don’t say Gay” Bill).

Here is the reality – people are much more concerned about making sure their kids make it home from school safe, rather than having to avoid a pothole or worrying about if a teacher is going to hold a class on being transgender for 5 year olds.   

When I worked corporately, I cared deeply about my company, my employees, and my clients. 

It’s very natural to have a defense mechanism put up when failures occur. 

Few want to take responsibility, especially if you were not directly involved.

I admit that when things went south, I often looked for other things to blame FIRST, before I looked within and held myself accountable.

Perhaps one of my many failures in my first career.

However, now as a business owner – there is no time for blaming others.

Every single thing that happens at my company, I am responsible.

There is no one to look to other than myself.

Bad sales month? I didn’t have enough in the pipeline.

Bad profit month? I didn’t manage expenses properly.

Redo on a particular project? I didn’t pay close enough attention.

I have come to recognize that there is not one particular thing I can point to that resulted in my success or failure – there were always multiple reasons for both, and multiple things to do for the fix.

I share this with you because every single politician that either works in or with Washington needs to look at themselves and understand that they are responsible for this bloodshed.

Quite simply – you are all a bunch of pussies.

I know – painful to hear. 

For some reason, some of us treat our politicians like royalty or celebrities (which I don’t understand) where they find it hard to criticize them.

I would be embarrassed if I was the President, Vice President, Governor (of any state), senator or congressman if this happened on my watch while in office. 

It simply means that I didn’t do enough – I didn’t care enough – and I simply didn’t do my job.

I’ve said this before and I will say it again “Unless it happens to you, you care, but not that much”.

I wrote about this a few years ago when I wrote an article that was an open letter to the next school shooter.

In it, I encouraged (not literally) the next shooter to instead shoot up the schools of politicans kids and grandkids instead of the place they were going.

I know, Awful. Terrible. Sadistic.

Many of you condemned me both verbally and in writing. (If it makes you feel any better, I was interrogated by the Secret Service for several hours and they searched my entire house.)

My point was that unless you are directly affected, it is hard to grasp the severity of the problem because you think it will happen to others and not you.

While I know some are trying, it’s not good enough.

The ones that support further gun control? I fully support you, but you failed.

The ones that support further mental health screening? I fully support you, but you failed.

You failed because you are too busy yelling about how your way to solve this problem is right, that you refuse to listen to others.

This is a very complicated problem and there is not one solution that will fix all.

Universal background checks? Yes, that will reduce some mass shootings, but not all.

Mental Health assessment? Yes, that will reduce some mass shootings, but not all.

All I know is that inaction is the worst thing that we can do.

We as a society have blood on our hands as well, because we are the ones who voted these people in.

We have identified States as either Red or Blue – and blamed the problems on the red or blue color we oppose.

All mass shootings are tragic, but this one is even worse.

Why?

Because we know the blueprint that is followed.

We should be able to prevent  - perhaps not all – but most with our experience with past shootings.

Without knowing everything there is to know about this shooter – here is what I can already tell you.

He told people what he was going to do.

He posted something about it on social media.

People dismissed the signs of his issues.

People aren’t surprised it was him.

No kid shoots heroin the first time they do drugs. They just don’t.

They start with smoking cigarettes, then pot, move onto cocaine, take shrooms, acid, and then maybe move onto to heroin or meth.

Same thing with these shooters. They don’t just wake up one day and shoot up a school.

There are always, always, always signs.

So here is what I propose.

Since we can’t seem to rely on our politicians to get out of the bottleneck, we need to do it.

Many people reached out to me last night (thank you), because they knew how this may trigger my family and community.

While I appreciate that wholeheartedly – the reality is that Parkland/Coral Springs is likely safer right now than your neighborhood simply because most everyone here is on high alert. (Obviously that wasn’t the case in 2018.)

Verbal threats, social media threats, etc get reported quickly, and those offenders are dealt with appropriately.

So, to avoid becoming the next Uvalde and having America tell you “Fuck you”, you need to solve the problem yourself.

Get off your fucking phones at dinner (or breakfast, lunch, bedtime, home from school) and have a conversation with your kids.

Who has seen odd behavior from a friend? Classmate?

Who has made “jokes” about shootings, killings, etc?

Which kid would be “the one” if there was a school shooting”?

Maybe all of these questions aren’t age appropriate, but modify accordingly.

(This conversation, by the way, should not be limited to kids and school. You should also look within your workplace.)

Anything that sounds off, report them.

The point is, just have the conversation.

Will you lose friendships? Likely, but better than losing your kid.

If you haven’t done that, you are part of the problem and you too might as well say “Fuck You” to the next town/city that experiences a school shooting.

Now will this eliminate all shootings? No, of course not.

We still need better security at schools – metal detectors, guard dogs, panic alarms.

Cost money? Yes, it will but I’m sure there is a way to figure that out with corporate sponsors who would gladly pay for that.

Instead of bashing the NRA (Which has not been successful), how about sitting down with them and seeing how we can work together?

Personally, I have yet to see evidence that a “good guy with a gun” prevents school violence. Sure an argument can be made that it prevented even more killings, but that is of little solace to the families of those that were killed.

But here is the thing – Despite that, I would be willing to accept that as a potential solution AS LONG as there were other items included in that such as universal background checks and mental health evaluations.

See what I did there?

It’s not that difficult.

It’s called compromise in the name of preventing more violence.

It’s called multiple solutions to a complex problem and hoping one of these things will work.

Regardless if you are a right wing Republican or a far left Democrat – If this shooting doesn’t anger and upset you, then I’m not sure what will.

My heart breaks for you Uvalde, Texas. 

The title of this article was not directed at you – it was directed at every one of you reading this article – as well as those that haven’t.

May you find the strength to get you through this difficult time, and know that you can rely on the Parkland/Coral Springs community to navigate this sad journey you will be taking.

To all my readers – please head my advice, warning, direction, guidance.

Someone right now is planning the next school shooting as we speak.

In your city/town/school.

Please do something about it.

Otherwise, Fuck you too.