The Burrow

I just don't get it.  Republicans are still furious over the deaths of four grown-ups in Benghazi while evincing no concern for 26 children and teachers mowed down by an automatic weapon wielding young man. Those grown-ups assumed the risks associated with their jobs. The kids did the same. The grown-ups wore bullet-proof vests and carried weaponry. The youngsters wore logo emblazoned t-shirts and carried back packs. The only similarity between the two situations is the universal agreement that there was bad intelligence.  No one knew what was going on, no one shared what little was known, concerns were ignored. Decisions were made by generals and assistant secretaries and parents who were operating within their own little silos of information, hurtling down the road to disaster, thinking they were smarter than the facts would reveal... like a mother who taught her son-who-was-battling-mental-illness to shoot... and provided the armaments, too. Fingers are pointing in al...

The Tour de France is climbing the Alps and I am soaking up the greenery.  TBG is flipping between Independence Day and the cycling as I try to get comfortable.  It's been a long, interesting weekend. I can't decide if I'm glad that it's over. The Cuters began their weekends on Wednesday, she with early release from work and he with a drive to Lake Tahoe, with the groom-to-be, for a bachelor party. I decided to join them. I brought Chinese food home for dinner, read what turned out to be a trashy mystery , and watched The Big Bang Theory , Season 1, Episodes 1 - 3.  It was a wonderful day, but I couldn't relax. The No More Names bus tour 's arrival here in Tucson was planned for Tuesday and actually happening on Friday and I'd agreed to speak.  I'd only put myself front and center on the issue once before.  Standing next to Gabby and Mark and seven security guards (the ones we could identify), leaning on a podium in front of fifty reporters and cam...

There were six of them.  They were neatly dressed in first-time-this-season cold weather gear, or what passes for such when Tucson's temperatures dip to the 50's.  Each one held a prettily wrapped gift as she walked through the door and into Five Guys this afternoon. Sitting at an outdoor table in the sun, waiting for TBG and Big Cuter to arrive from the airport, I smiled at those grown up Madelines, walking in one straight line, happy and healthy and ..... oh, no, they didn't do that.  They did not let that door slam in the face of the older woman who had been waiting patiently just inside the restaurant as they made their way past her.  They did not do that.  It's too nice a day for such bad manners. Sigh.  The woman and her two female companions opened the door themselves and smiled at me and the girls as we all shook our heads. "Obviously raised by wolves,"  I opined. "Oh, no," said the leader of the pack, "they're just kids....

I've stayed away from discussing weaponry in The Burrow. We had a conversation about it, my family and I, while I was on a morphine drip in the hospital.   There are angry people associated with the issue, Mom.  I couldn't bear it if you got shot, again.  Those are powerful words to hear from your adult daughter.  They made an impact.  I stayed away, and focused on doing good and healing. Then twenty children were slaughtered by a young man with a gun. Little Cuter and I agree; it's time to act. I'm putting my energies behind Michael Bloomberg's Mayors Against Illegal Guns'  effort to bring the record keeping efforts related to gun purchases into the 21st century and to Demand a Plan  to end gun violence.  Our elected officials must have thought about the issue once in a while.  NOW is the time for them to share their thoughts. We have been silent too long.  There is something fundamentally wrong with a system that allows indivi...