Reader CarolMalaysia shares a letter she sent to Indiana Senator Todd Young, to be sure he understands that he has blood on his hands.
She writes:
3/10/2018
Corrupt Senator Young, a hero is in the hospital because of your support for assault weapons. He took 5 bullets to save his classmates in Florida
How many more mass killings are necessary before we ban military type assault weapons and criminalize their possession? I hold you responsible for the injury of this brave child of 15 who was shot 5 times and is still in the hospital.
If the point is it’s a great thrill to go to a shooting range and fire an AR-15, make a special permit for the shooting range owners to provide the AR-15, which the visitor uses and leaves at the shooting range.
Here is Anthony Borges’s story: When a 19 year old gunman raged through a high school in Parkland, Florida, on February 14, 2018 a 15-year-old soccer player named Anthony Borges showed extreme courage.
Anthony, who is of Venezuelan descent, apparently was the last of a group of students rushing into a classroom to seek refuge. He shut the door behind him and frantically tried to lock it, but in an instant the gunman appeared on the other side. Instead of running for cover, Anthony blocked the door to keep the shooter out. He held his ground even as the attacker opened fire.
Asked why he would do that, he replied, “What’s so hard to understand about what I did?”
Shot five times in the legs and torso, Anthony phoned his father to say that he had been wounded. He was rushed to a hospital and survived.
Anthony Borges may not yet be able to walk, but tens of thousands of us will be Marching for him, led by his classmates from Parkland, on March 24 in Washington DC and in places all over the country. Hoosiers are going to show that they do not support corrupt politicians like Senator Todd Young who was bought out by the NRA. [$2,896,732] We want meaningful strict gun legislation.
Senator Todd Young, are you going to pay for this young man’s medical bills? You are personally responsible for all the deaths and injury caused by an assault weapon. What about giving Anthony Borges a scholarship? A moral person in your position would accept what he needs to do.
Corrupt Senator Todd Young’s stance:
I believe the “Assault Weapons Ban” of 1994 was bad legislation that needed to be repealed.”
Source: 2010 House campaign website, toddyoungforcongress.com/ , Nov 2, 2010.
Let’s honor Anthony Borges, not just as a counterpoint to corrupt, bought out politicians who leave children in harm’s way, but as a beacon of courage and selflessness for all of us to follow.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Congresswoman Nita Lowey’s husband once told me little gets done in Congress without a disaster or massacre to push lawmakers to action.
This means the clock is ticking on Parkland – it will be a matter of time before apathy and amnesia sets back in. What’s different now is that the victims are using this moment to make average, disconnected Americans understand how it feels to be a kid in a school being shot at.
But we are also squandering this moment focusing narrowly on gun control and not enough on campaign finance reform. We make the same mistake in the education wars, spending more time exposing unfair policies and inaccurate metrics than the underlying corruption in campaign finance.
The NRA, billionaire ed reformers or for-profit military contractors win when we spend our time getting into the intricate details of gun accessories or testing policies or fake WMD. They can stall – for years at a time – by replacing one bad policy with another. Perfect example is the advent of personalized learning (on the way in) to replace standardized testing (on the way out). Different weapons in the same class war.
Compiling evidence is necessary, but we must focus more on making corporate cash toxic. This is a daunting goal in the current system, as the rich are not even spending very much yet. The Kochs pledged $100 million in spending for 2016, but already got over $10 billion in benefits. So they can easily double or triple what they spend. Our only hope is making their money – in any amount – translate into a loss at the ballot box.
Emma Gonzales and some of the other Parkland kids shamed Rubio for taking NRA money. That’s the right play here – don’t argue assault weapons bans or background checks with potential voters, we already have majority support for those policies – show them the campaign money already changing hands in advance of the next election.
The article above is what we need now – amplify these kids and this moment, don’t let it fade away and most importantly, make it a defining issue to drive turnout in November.
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Exactly, señor!
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Jake, so right.
The Koch and DeVos and NRA count on apathy and amnesia. And they will use distractions to change the subject.
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Unrelated how is the book coming along . You have a lot in common with Dean Baker . Last week he said out of here, for a week and on vacation to his Blog post . 2 posts and a major piece in the Washington Post with Jared Bernstein is a vacation .
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Joel,
Thanks for asking. I have a lot of reading to do before I start writing.
I am reading Barbara Miner’s book about Milwaukee now—Lessons from the Heartland—and it is gripping. I will review it here.
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“If the point is it’s a great thrill to go to a shooting range and fire an AR-15, make a special permit for the shooting range owners to provide the AR-15, which the visitor uses and leaves at the shooting range.”
This is a great suggestion, though the “other side” justify owning weapons for defense purposes . In the meantime, let us all enjoy target shooting with an AR 15 in this NRA video. Enought to watch the first 5 minutes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAC_jVcXhzk
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