England is a cup of tea.
France, a wheel of ripened brie.
Greece, a short, squat olive tree.
America is a gun.
Brazil is football on the sand.
Argentina, Maradona's hand.
Germany, an oompah band.
America is a gun.
Holland is a wooden shoe.
Hungary, a goulash stew.
Australia, a kangaroo.
America is a gun.
Japan is a thermal spring.
Scotland is a highland fling.
Oh, better to be anything
than America as a gun.
- Brian Bilston, 2016
Recently I led a tour with prospective families of my kids' public elementary school when I noticed a note taped above the emergency exit direction: Lockdown instructions.
It stopped me for a moment. I know my boys and their teachers regularly do these drills, but seeing this slightly worn, innocuous notice stuck above the light switch was a gut punch this week.
According to USA Today, 240 mass shootings where four or more people have been injured have been reported as of June 5, 2022. There have been 12 mass shootings in the U.S. with a death count of four or more, based on current numbers from the Gun Violence Archive this year.
Republicans don't trust teachers to accurately tell the inauspicious history of the United States but do want them to carry guns into underfunded classrooms for defense. They are disturbingly interested in fetuses, but not the mothers who might be victims of rape or incest or simply not ready to be parents. They ignore a widespread lack of affordable health insurance, housing, and childcare. They blame mental health issues for gun violence while slashing those services for our most vulnerable populations and targeting LBGTQ+ youths while courting and protecting the gun and ammunition manufacturers.
Meanwhile, the United States is a gun, armed and dangerous and ready to go off.
Photo Credit Jason Leung