The Gadfly is utterly convinced that during one of his legendary inebriated escapades of the past year or so - his earthly spirit decided to check out of the reality based world he had perceived himself to be living in and reincarnated himself into the Kafkaesque world that is foisting this kind of insanity upon humanity:
The pink bulletproof rucksack that 5-year-old Jaliyah wears to school every day reaches almost down to her knees and weighs 3lbs even when empty, but for her Colorado father, the size and solidity are part of the attraction.
"If you put it on her back, it almost covers her whole body," explains Demitric Boykin. "It was a very hard conversation to have but she knows that it's something that will keep her safe."
Lined with ballistic material that can stop a 9mm bullet travelling at 400 metres per second, the backpack is only one of a clutch of new products making their way into US schools in the wake of Newtown school massacre. As gun control legislation grinds to halt in Washington, a growing number of parents and teachers are taking matters into their own hands.
The Denver company that supplied Jaliyah's rucksack, Elite Sterling Security, has sold over 300 in the last two months and received inquiries from some 2,000 families across the US. It is also in discussion with more than a dozen schools in Colorado about equipping them with ballistic safety vests, a scaled-down version of military uniforms designed to hang in classroom cupboards for children to wear in an emergency.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/apr/26/us-bulletproof-uniforms-gun-control
Ahh -- what a lovely vision of a grand and almighty America -- 5 year old toddlers being issued bullet proof backpacks, no doubt replete with joyful graphics of Spongebob and Dora The Explorer, and outfitted with their cute little Kevlar woven school uniforms. All, we are being advised, in order to prepare the little tykes for the next Newtown slaughter (and believe it - there will be another) and the crazed and heavily armed madman who might breach the security of the school district trained Barney Fife janitors and rent-a-cops with their single bullet pistols.
As if that isn't mind-twisting enough, catch a load of how the proponents of this dystopian nightmare society rationalize their thought process for this deranged solution to school safety:
Abilia Security & Investigations works with schools in the Colorado Springs area to run training courses, practicing 7-10 minute drills and preparing multiple escape routes.
"The American people have traditionally viewed the classroom as a revered sanctuary that should not be sullied by any form of negative influences either of an external or internal nature," it says. "Regrettably the safeguards which were initially put into place to protect the sanctity of the classroom didn't evolve with our dramatically changing society."
Those behind this boom in school security are adamant they are not exploiting the fear, merely filling a growing need for safety.
AJ Zabadne, president of Elite Sterling Security, says his products should be seen as a routine precaution rather than something that would alarm children.
"It's like you find life jackets on ships or planes in case they go down," he says. "It's no different to having a seatbelt in a car."
No need to adjust your eyeglasses or rub your eyes to refocus after reading that last paragraph. Yes indeed -- the security specialist who is peddling this idea (with visions of P.T. Barnum sugar plums and twinkling, dancing dollar signs in his eyes) that you need to trundle your kindergartner off to school dressed head to toe in combat armor is of the view that it really is no different than "life jackets on ships or planes," or "seatbelts in a car."
If, like The Gadfly, you still have a few tattered remnants of sensibility and logic left inside yourself after enduring such an onslaught of unmitigated psychopathic witlessness, and you find your blood pressure skyrocketing to the point that you can feel the waves of rage lapping at your eardrums like storm frothed ocean waves lapping at the cold, indifferent cement of a beach-side seawall, then count yourself among the still living, caring, and sane faction of the human race.
The Gadfly can only ask of his fellow sane human beings that you stand up and speak out against this madness. At some point, we have to have collective faith (faith stronger than the madness that has gripped the minds of the gun loons) that reason and measured morality will triumph over the unthinking imbecility that is fast tracking this great experiment in democracy on a dead ahead destination to fallen empire status.
----TFG
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