The poor wretches are slaves, of course.

“It’s time to have a point of view not just an opinion,” Don Lemon says in “This is the Fire.” In other words, it’s time to take a stand that doesn’t fade away until the next shooting. It’s time to put honesty and fairness ahead of convenience. It’s time to pull down many old bronze statues in our parks.

Eduhonesty: I encourage readers to look at this book: Donald Trump has energized Lemon, as he has energized many others. “You need symptoms to alert you to a disease.” A fave: “Trump was the malignant node in our armpit.” I usually keep politics out of this blog, but if I am keeping the topic of racism out of the blog because of that preference, I may have to revisit my no-politics policy.

Chapter Two’s title is perfect: “We didn’t get here by accident.” That’s the crux of so many attempts to explain away the history we don’t want to see: the idea that it was incidental and unintentional. Yet people didn’t buy or keep slaves accidentally.  Too many statues that have been erected to men who did not acquire their human property “by accident.” Major purchases are never accidents.

Eduhonesty’s educational observations:

As a kid Lemon felt trapped by a black box of low expectations. He looked at his white classmates and could not help but see how much easier it was for them to get ahead. Comparisons are inevitable between people, and comparisons start so early. Preschoolers and kindergartners identify who can draw well, who knows the alphabet and who is good at sports. Little kids are not oblivious to who has it easier, who has more money, and who is getting more support for their classroom efforts. Little kids are not oblivious to privilege.

What are the long-term implications of children’s awareness? I hope readers will find time for this book. Lemon’s life story puts an unusual face on racism because Lemon is without question an American success story, host of CNN Tonight with Don Lemon. Here’s just a snippet of seeing today’s world through his eyes:

“Those on the front lines have no motivation but the stories they’ve been told: myths and legends presented in middle school textbooks that should be subtitled ‘A Redacted History of the United States’ or maybe ‘A Conveniently Selective Memory of What Went Down.'”

Hopeful and passionate, yet willing to address hard truths, Lemon captures truths in history, cinema, and politics with clarity and resolve.

I reached the end of this book and felt more energized to step into the fight than I have in a while. It’s easy to get discouraged, but we should always be seeking justice, always be helping our students to navigate this world. This book felt worth my time for the appendix alone — a list of books, podcasts, other audio and video, and websites.

The thin blue line held in the Covenant School shooting. Six people were killed: Headmistress Katherine Koonce, custodian Mike Hill, substitute teacher Cynthia Peak and three nine-year-old, third-grade students named Evelyn Dieckhaus, William Kinney and Hallie Scruggs — name them, please — but the 28-year-old shooter who picked Covenant School as her target had intended much greater carnage. Only Nashville’s solid police response kept the final tally from exploding into double digits. Once Audrey, now Aiden Hale had intended to go out blazing, leaving bodies throughout the school, as part of yet another suicide at the hands of law enforcement officers.

I wish we hadn’t named Hale. We have to stop naming these shooters, giving them recognition. Naming them posthumously encourages others, even when our Aidens have gone beyond reach. Unfortunately the Hale story was too juicy. It overwhelmed the sense and sensibilities of news pundits. He was trans with recently changed pronouns. Years past, she had once attended the devastated school. He had been quietly and privately stashing guns, hiding his crazy just well enough to escape detection. Well enough is all it takes today.

Eduhonesty: My last sentence captures the point I want to make: well enough is all it takes. It’s easy to be a school shooter, so very easy, and we are scarcely acknowledging this fact.

I could go out and buy an AR-15 today and no one around me would be the wiser.* No one would alert my husband or anyone else. Aiden’s mother was a social media soccer mom who clicked on all the right links to get into the Active Parent and Good Mom category. Mom appears to have been clueless, though, and I’d like to address those online presences who say she must have known or should have known. Ummm… If her child chose not to tell her, how was she to find out?

Eduhonesty: Straight to the heart of the matter: I can buy an AR-15 NOW if I feel like it. My dad might even have one stashed somewhere, making the process easier. How many people have family members with gun collections?

I have no mental health history to raise flags, but if I did and lied about that history, who would find out? There’s no national database of people who have received mental health care, and if there was, I privately suspect it might hold the names of half the country. How many people in the US are using Prozac, Lexapro or some pharmaceutical cousin? I’ve sat through those discussions of side effects, whether to start, whether to change, whether to add yoga and meditation etc., and I’m sure many people reading this post have done the same.

Yet in most of this country, NO barriers exist to planning a school shooting for an adult. Few barriers exist for millions of kids. Our legislative leaders can’t seem to ban or sometimes even restrict the guns. But absolutely nothing else will work — and talk about putting more guns in schools is simply inviting more elephants into an overcrowded room.

Those pundits who claim we need more armed officers in schools honestly appear not to grasp the situation at all: school shootings are a popular version of planned suicide by unlucky cop, deliberately intended to be another horrific story for the national news. Shooters WANT to be shot, want to rack up viewership numbers even when they can no longer see or read the stories, posts and tweets they generate. That Plan B, Go-to-Jail-for-Life, is not on the list of their intended or expected endings. The main effect of more armed guards in schools will be to change a shooter’s chosen point of entry. Details of the masterplan will be altered, and the net effect may be to make the death toll even HIGHER, as shooters plan events they might otherwise have left to chance.

*Actually, buying that gun is a bit more complicated for me because I am in Illinois. If I were in Wisconsin, less than an hour away, all I would need is to be 18 years of age or older. The state would tell the ATF, but no one would tell my family. About the only gun not allowed in Wisconsin is a sawed-off shotgun. Here’s a quick picture of the current situation: There are only ten states where assault rifles are even restricted. https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/assault-rifles-legality-by-state