Tag Archives: militia

national news

‘They are good people’

These four men are among the “good people” to whom Donald Trump referred the other day.

They were among those who protested the government restrictions imposed in the wake of the killer virus that has claimed nearly 70,000 American lives. The COVID-19 virus has forced state governments to order businesses to close, imposed shelter in place and stay at home orders, mandated gatherings should not exceed 10 people, and ordered “social distancing.”

The aim of the government restrictions is as noble as it gets: to save lives and prevent illness.

However, some Americans have stormed into state capitol buildings in several states. Donald Trump calls them “good people,” yes, even the fellows pictured with this blog, the guys who are packing assault rifles and wearing masks … that are intended to hide their identity as opposed to protecting them from the killer virus.

We have come to this, ladies and gentlemen. Americans who want to reopen the economy are willing to risk their lives and worse, to risk others’ lives by rushing toward a premature return to what they used to think of as a “normal” life.

I can think of few images that are more frightening than what we have seen coming from these protests. They include individuals waving Confederate flags, even swastikas! — and yet the president of the United States declares them to be “good people.”

This is all a disgraceful display of protest running amok.

We have witnessed political protest mixed with coercion and intimidation. No sane individual wants the economy to collapse; no one wants Americans to suffer from economic deprivation; no one wants economic tragedy. Neither should a sane person want to expose other Americans to the threat of a deadly virus.

We keep hearing from the Trump administration that we need to witness two weeks of decline in the rate of infection to start moving toward normalization. We aren’t there yet.

In the meantime, protesters brandishing assault weapons are demanding that government lift the restrictions it has designed to protect our health … enabling us to continue our “Pursuit of Happiness.”  

Go figure.

education news

Teachers aren’t ‘militia’

Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s juxtaposition of “teachers” with “militia” got me thinking a bit today.

So, I looked up the term “militia.” Here is what I found:

A military force that is raised from the civil population to supplement a regular army in an emergency; a military force that engages in rebel or terrorist activities, typically in opposition to a regular army; all able-bodied civilians eligible by law for military service.

This morning, Patrick — a conservative Republican — said on ABC News’s “This Week” that “teachers are part of a well-run militia.”

Actually, the way I read the definition that I found, they are nothing of the kind. They aren’t military, or paramilitary.

Patrick’s statement was in response to questions about the Santa Fe High School massacre that killed 10 people — eight of whom were students. Patrick wants school teachers to be armed. That is a wrong-headed answer to the scourge of gun violence in our public schools.

The U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment speaks of a “well-regulated militia.” I cannot find — no matter how hard I look — any link whatsoever between the founders’ intent in crafting that clause to the idea that militia includes public school teachers.

Teachers are hired to educate. They aren’t hired to take up arms, even in an emergency. We “regulate” militias because we ask our military reservists, for example, to perform functions for which they are trained. Do we train teachers to set up perimeters around our schools and then stand guard with loaded weapons?

No. Teachers enter their profession exclusively to be positive influences on our children, to educate and occasionally nurture them.

So, let’s stop this loose talk about arming teachers. And for crying out loud, let’s also implore at least one high-profile Texas politician — Lt. Gov. Patrick — to stop equating teachers with militia.