Monthly Archives: May 2022

military news

Juxtaposing two dates

I am going to juxtapose two commemorations with this blog post saluting a man who (a) didn’t die in service to his country but who (b) remains forever my favorite military veteran.

We’re going to honor the memories of the more than 1 million Americans who died in battle during the course of our nation’s storied history. Memorial Day is set aside for the laying of wreaths at cemeteries and for quiet remembrances of those who gave their last full measure of devotion to the country they loved.

I honor them continually throughout the year. I love watching the pageantry associated with the president of the United States laying a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown. I am struck by the tradition of soldiers marching back and forth at the Tomb and I am awestruck by the precision of their movements.

We should honor these individuals — the men and women who died defending us — whenever and wherever we can.

My favorite veteran, of course, is my Dad. He died prematurely nearly 42 years ago. Indeed, today would be Dad’s 101st birthday. He came into this world on May 27, 1921. He left it on Sept. 7, 1980 at the age of 59.

What perhaps is most remarkable about Pete Kanelis’s devotion to his country is the impulse he exhibited in seeking to serve it. On Dec. 7, 1941, when Dad was just 20 years of age, he was listening to the radio broadcast of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. He was so incensed at what was happening in real time that he left the house where he lived in Portland, Ore., with his parents and six siblings, ventured downtown and sought to join the U.S. Marine Corps … on that very day!

The Marine Corps office was closed. He walked across the hall and enlisted instead in the U.S. Navy.

Dad would experience his share of war’s hell in the Mediterranean Theater of Operations. He would survive a ship being sunk; he would shoot down a Luftwaffe medium bomber and would participate in three amphibious landings in Algeria, Sicily and Italy.

He fought like hell against tyranny and was among the 16 million Americans who suited up during World War II to comprise the Greatest Generation.

This weekend belongs chiefly to those who fell in battle. I also want to wish my favorite veteran a happy 101st birthday and honor his memory for the service he delivered to the country he loved beyond measure.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news

Abbott is ‘livid’ over misinformation

“As everybody has learned, the information that I was given turned out, in part, to be inaccurate, and I am absolutely livid about that.”

That was Texas Gov. Greg Abbott today responding to reports that the police in charge of the response to the shooting rampage that left 19 children and two teachers dead at a Uvalde elementary school had lied to him.

Is it fair to call it a lie? I believe so. A lie is the deliberate and purposeful telling of a falsehood. A shooter entered Robb Elementary School on Tuesday and opened fire with an AR-15 rifle.

The cops told the governor that they responded so slowly because they believed the shooting had stopped. It hadn’t. Department of Public Safety director Steven McCraw now admits to the mistake in delaying the DPS response. What he hasn’t yet copped to, though, is why he told Abbott a tale that prompted the governor to praise law enforcement’s efforts initially.

Some heads need to roll.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Bidens coming to pray and to seek solutions

President and Mrs. Biden — both of whom are familiar with the intense grief of burying a child — are coming to Texas to grieve with the families and friends of the 21 people who died in that horrific massacre that erupted at Robb Elementary School.

For the Bidens, this marks the second such community they will visit in the past two weeks. Recall that they went to Buffalo, N.Y., to extend the nation’s sympathy to the families of the10 victims of the shooter who walked into a supermarket and opened fire.

Now comes this latest unspeakable event.

Nineteen third- and fourth-graders died at the hands of the madman along with two teachers who were trying to shield the children from the bullets.

What does the president say? What can Jill Biden tell them? Yes, they buried an adult son who died from cancer in 2015. What’s more, the president’s infant daughter died in a tragic 1972 car wreck just before he took office as a U.S. senator from Delaware.

They have walked this lonely path before.

Their task, though, ought to be as well to mobilize men and women in Congress to do what they can to prevent future occurrences of this scope and misery. That, I dare say, will be a much steeper mountain to climb than merely hugging victims’ family members.

Still, it is good that they will come to Texas to express the nation’s sorrow over this hideous tragedy.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news

‘Fog of war’

They call it the “fog of war” when the whole truth sometimes gets lost in people’s recollections of what happened during the intense heat of battle.

So it might be playing out as a grieving nation seeks the truth behind the police response to the Uvalde, Texas, massacre on Tuesday that killed 19 precious children and two teachers seeking to protect them from the lunatic who opened fire.

Did the police respond correctly? Why did it take an hour for the cops to put down the shooter? Why was the shooter able to walk directly through an unlocked door at Robb Elementary School carrying an AR-15 rifle? Was there an armed police officer on duty at the school … or not?

To their discredit, the Texas Department of Public Safety flacks answering media questions in Uvalde have told conflicting stories of what happened and when it occurred?

Meanwhile, the loved ones of the victims are suffering unbearable pain while awaiting answers to the key question: Could the police have stopped this lunatic before he inflicted such misery?

The “fog of war” defense isn’t enough.

We need answers. We need them right now.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Teachers are not cops!

I want to make myself utterly and totally clear about something I posted earlier on this blog about arming teachers to stop shooters who murder children in classrooms.

Teachers have no business being asked to do something they possibly — if not probably — never have done in their lives. If we arm teachers, we should not expect them to respond with the cool professionalism that law enforcement officers are trained to do.

Arm teachers? Seriously? | High Plains Blogger

Teachers are there to teach children. Arming teachers is an invitation to a disastrous event.

Imagine putting a pistol in the hands of a 24-year-old teacher fresh out of college and in the classroom for the first time in his or her life. The teacher has received training on firearm proficiency, but has never fired a gun at another human being.

What does one expect would occur if a gunman walks into that teacher’s classroom and starts spraying the room with bullets? How would that freshly scrubbed teacher respond?

Let’s end this discussion about arming teachers and deal realistically with how we can prevent future massacres such as what occurred in Uvalde this week.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

State news

Arm teachers? Seriously?

There he stood, yapping and yammering about how stricter gun laws don’t do a thing to keep us safer. Instead, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas said in the wake of the Uvalde school massacre, we need to arm teachers and let them settle the issue of a shooter marching down the halls.

What an absolute crock!

The notion of allowing teachers to pack heat in the classroom is preposterous. I realize that in Texas, some school districts allow such nonsense. Cruz, the Republican junior senator, wants to expand it. He says, in effect, more guns make us safer. Really … Ted?

They do not!

Indeed, Texas is one of those states that no longer requires anyone to demonstrate a level of proficiency with a firearm. We have that law enacted in 2021 called “constitutional carry” of firearms. Gov. Greg Abbott signed the bill that made it legal for anyone who doesn’t have a criminal conviction on his or her record to own a gun.

How, then, does allowing teachers to carry guns into the classroom any safer? In my view, it doesn’t.

Let’s understand something about law enforcement officers who are licensed as well to carry firearms. They must pass continual tests during their careers to prove their proficiency. How can we expect a teacher to always know what to do in case of an emergency to react properly? We cannot!

I am going to continue to stand on the notion that there must be a legislative remedy that lawmakers of good will and those a conscience can find that doesn’t run counter to the Second Amendment to our Constitution.

Politicians such as Ted Cruz continue to lambaste those on the other side for “politicizing” tragedies such as Uvalde, or Sandy Hook, or Columbine or Aurora while at the same time leaning on their own political benefactors as they refuse to discuss or debate possible solutions within Congress or in state legislatures.

Who, then, is playing politics while our children continue to die?

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

‘Yes!’ on background checks

Someone will have to explain to me — in a persuasive manner — why the concept of “universal background checks” on anyone purchasing a firearm is so anathema to those on the right-wing fringes of political thought.

The issue has burst back onto our political consciousness in the wake of the Uvalde school massacre that killed 19 precious children and two of the educators who sought to protect them from the madness that erupted in their classroom.

Border Patrol tactical officers killed the shooter.

He purchased the weapons he used to slaughter his victims legally. How did he do that? Because he did not have to undergo a routine “universal background check” to look for any clues as to why he shouldn’t own the weapons.

Those in Congress — the men and women whose campaigns are bankrolled by the gun lobby — keep harping on Second Amendment freedoms. They suggest that any effort to legislate tougher gun laws runs counter to the Second Amendment guarantee of citizens to “keep and bear arms.”

They are wrong!

How can I explain this any clearer? Those who can pass a background check if they purchase a firearm have nothing in the world to worry about? The law-abiding citizenry can arm itself to the teeth. The Second Amendment stands strongly in favor of their right to own weapons.

A legislative remedy, though, does exist if Congress is willing to enact it as a deterrent against those who might have something in their background that can sound alarm bells.

Perhaps the details of such a background check can be worked out. There could be some serious negotiating into what constitutes a deal-breaker if someone seeks to purchase a firearm. Fine. Then work it out!

This so-called constitutional argument, though, against universal background checks is a canard. Those who seek shelter in the Constitution against such safeguards are seeking to frighten the rest of us into believing that government then will seize every weapon in every home from every law-abiding citizen.

That is demagoguery at its worst.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

State news

Uvalde to be theme of 2022 Texas midterm campaign

Hey, this is just a hunch, but I’ll toss it out there to see if sticks to any walls, but I believe that the Uvalde massacre this week might become the central campaign issue in the Texas midterm election campaign.

It’ll dominate the races for governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, perhaps for the Legislature. Heck it might even play in some county commissioners court campaigns somewhere in Texas.

You know the story about the lunatic who entered Robb Elementary School and massacred 19 children and two teachers. About how Border Patrol tactical squad officers shot him to death. Now come the questions about how the gunman entered the building with relative ease — while packing an AR-15 rifle, the kind used to kill soldiers on the battlefield!

Beto O’Rourke crashed a press conference held by Gov Greg Abbott on Wednesday and said Abbott deserves blame for the deaths in Uvalde. O’Rourke is running against Abbott this year. Hold on with both hands, folks. Because this ride is going to get mighty rough.

Many millions of Americans are enraged at what happened in Uvalde. They damn sure should be. The question now becomes whether there can be a solution found to stem the violence. O’Rourke is correct to suggest that those in power should be held accountable for their inaction.

Thus, we have the campaign theme taking shape as we grieve the deaths in Uvalde.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

State news

Thank you, Beto

1 Comment

Beto O’Rourke stood up and spoke for millions of Americans who are heartbroken, shattered and grief-stricken over the latest eruption of violence in one of our public schools.

The Democratic Party nominee for Texas governor stood before the man he hopes to defeat. Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, and accused his foe of “doing nothing” to stop the violence. He was shouted down by others on the dais with Abbott and escorted out of the room.

But was it uncalled for? Did O”Rourke say anything inappropriate? No. He spoke from the heart and spoke for many Texans and other Americans.

Twenty-one people died Tuesday morning in Uvalde’s Ross Elementary School; 19 of the victims were third- and fourth-grade students. Children! The two adults were teachers who fought to protect them against the madman who opened fire.

Uvalde police officers and Border Patrol officers were able to kill the shooter.

This debate has exploded yet again. Beto O’Rourke correctly called Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan and other legislative leaders for their abject failure to confront the issue of gun violence. Indeed, Abbott has actually boasted about legislation he signed this past year that allows people to carry firearms openly without so much as a certificate attesting their proficiency in handling a deadly weapon.

Abbott spoke about the need for greater “mental health” care for Texans, as if suggesting that residents of this state are somehow nuttier than anyone else.

We need tougher restrictions on gun ownership. We need common-sense legislation that honors the Constitution but seeks to prevent nut cases like the loon who stormed into Robb Elementary School to do the dastardly deed he carried out.

We need to find common ground among legislators of both political parties.

Why in the name of all that is sacred is that so hard to find?

Thank you, Beto O’Rourke, for standing up to the do-nothings whose inaction allows this carnage to continue.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

State news

Uvalde = tragedy

Make no mistake about this bit of tragic reality: a beautiful South Texas community is going to be tagged with an identifier that links it to tragedy.

It burst onto our national consciousness Tuesday with the shooting deaths at Robb Elementary School of 19 children and two educators who sought to shield the kids from the lunatic who burst into the school brandishing an AR-15 rifle.

Police killed the shooter. But not before the gunman killed all those children and the teachers who fought to protect them.

My question now is whether Uvalde will be associated forever with tragedy. Or will the town of about 15,000 people be known as the place that stirred legislators, governors, members of Congress to act — finally! — in the interests of protecting other children in other communities?

My heart and my head are conflicting with each other on this one. My heart requires me to hope that Uvalde becomes synonymous with actual reform to stop gun violence, particularly the kind of hideous violence that has thrown the nation into this spasm of grief. My head, though, yanks me back into reality, in that we have traveled down this path too many times already only to be saddened at the lack of reform.

I won’t give up on my hope for the former.

Still, we have a lot of grieving and mourning to complete as we seek to grasp the ghastly reality of what has just unfolded.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com