The News

I catch up on the news online, because I don't have cable or satellite. It's just another expense I don't feel like dealing with month to month. I usually catch bits and pieces on Facebook and MSN.com and Yahoo.com.

So reading articles today on MSN.com, and I have to say, it's no fucking wonder Americans don't watch the news or keep up to date on current events. The 'events' the media panders to are awful. I'm pretty sure the number of shootings has not actually increased since the Sandy Hook incident, but the reporting of them certainly has. Every day there's a new shooting reported on, usually people getting worked up over something and losing their heads. I'm not talking random attacks. Random attacks are supposedly the problem, right? No. I'm talking individuals killing each other, as humans often do. And this is in a time when crime rates are lower than they have been in years.

Thank you, media. I'm not calling the media biased towards the liberals or the conservatives... They're biased towards themselves. They want ratings, so they do their damnedest to stir the pot as much as possible and stoke the fires of controversy and dischord. People are upset over guns? Post more stories about every day happenings that two years ago wouldn't have made it past the editor's desk. Make it seem like people are shooting each other up more than ever.

I support certain measures on guns. Universal background checks on all sales, private included. Mandatory waiting periods (there isn't one in Texas.) I even support mandatory licensing of individuals and education classes before being allowed to purchase a gun.

What I don't support is the media herding us with their slanted, selective reporting into a goddamn feeding frenzy, just eating up whatever they can find to support our views or condemn our opponents. Forget the liberal media. Forget the conservative media. Can we just get an UNBIASED media?

TxT

Schools, Guns, and Madness

The shooting in Houston on Tuesday was at a college I attended day in and day out for two years. I graduated from LSC, and North Harris was my home campus. I still have friends, students and teachers, who go there. One in particular, my friend Stephanie, who is a single mother and has been a close friend since we started together in the summer four years ago.

I found the news on my FB page when I was checking in to post something amusing my teacher had done in Ethics. It was unbelievable to me, having gone to that campus for years. I can visualize the place it happened, having walked through there often. I didn't know if my friend was there, or my teachers, or even my brother, who attends the same school system. It scared the life out of me.
It horrifies me to imagine what that was like, hearing gun shots and not knowing what was going on or if someone was stalking the halls, looking only to cause as much damage and darkness as possible before being stopped.

Let me tell you what campus PD was good for: writing parking tickets and monitoring how fast vehicles were driving along the speedbump-laced roadways. None of them had guns. None of them were good for much of anything. They were little more than mall rent-a-cops. I wouldn't trust them to have the knowledge, ability, or fortitude to stop a shooting rampage.

Luckily, the shooting was an isolated incident, with a two men turning the quad into the OK Corral. Three people were hit, with one of them being the shooter, who was so inept he shot himself in the ass. The third was an employee who was listed in stable condition. It wasn't the horror that a school shooting can be, though the main victim is still listed in critical condition. But honestly, there's no way to enforce the rules against guns being brought on campus. It's a broad cluster of buildings, and it was entirely possible for the idiots to get on campus without passing beyond a single point that could be monitored by metal detectors or anything like that. This was an idiot who thought he was a badass and was going to prove a point with a gun.

I've read the arguments against allowing students with concealed carry permits to carry on campus. It would be disruptive, it would make other students uncomfortable, it would increase the risk of shootings. I call straight bullshit. The idea of concealed carry is that you carry your weapon concealed, meaning no one knows it. I could easily carry a pistol every day on a college campus and nobody would ever know. I have never pulled my gun in anger, and would never consider resorting to that level of violence unless it was to protect my life or the life of another. I feel that the vast majority of licensed gun holders share this mindset.

I'm not saying everyone should be allowed to carry. I feel that concealed carry holders should be able to put in an application with the school, with background checks, fingerprinting, and registering of any weapon that will be brought on campus. I know a lot of people who I really wouldn't want to see with a gun, but I feel that those that have proven themselves to be legally responsible and trustworthy with a weapon should be given the option to carry.

There have been multiple school shootings that have been stopped by students, teachers, or school officials who were carrying or had a gun in their vehicle. How many lives were saved in those instances? It's impossible to say. You know what is definite? The number of lives taken at Virginia Tech, North Illinois University, the University of Iowa, and the University of Arizona, just to name a few. What might have happened if someone, a teacher, a student, anyone, had been armed and had been able to stop the shooter at Virginia Tech? How many of the 32 killed would still be alive and well today?

If the schools aren't keeping us safe, why are we not allowed to protect ourselves?

TxT

911

I read a story today about a dispatcher making a mistake that potentially resulted in a woman's death. The dispatcher had been working for the agency for less than a year, and I think back to my first year as a dispatcher/calltaker at MoCo. It was scary! For any of you who have never considered what 911 calltaking/dispatching is like, picture this: you have a headset, 4-6 computer screens in front of you, and a steady stream of incoming calls from people who are frustrated, angry, scared, hurt, or otherwise distressed. Very few people call 911 in a calm, serene state. So you have people yelling at you, cussing at you, asking why you aren't helping them when, in fact, that's exactly what you're trying to do. You're trying to get as much pertinent information as possibly from people who are potentially at their worst and don't understand why all you're doing is asking them questions instead of GETTING THEM HELP NOW.

The system isn't always user friendly, and training isn't always perfect, and it's easy to set into action a series of events that look like you did something horrible when you were just trying to do your job to the best of your ability. The circumstances aren't known. The 911 center could've been flooded with calls (those are the worst times). There might have been other emergencies the fairly-new dispatcher was trying to attend to. Any number of things could have happened that would've presented as urgent and pushed the thought to make a followup call or take additional steps to the back of their mind.

I'm not necessarily defending the dispatcher. I don't know the exact situation and circumstances or their agencies protocols and general workings, but I feel for them. If I had become involved in an investigation like that, to decide if my actions had directly or indirectly resulted in the death of another person, I can't imagine how that would have affected me. All my life, I've been drawn to positions of public service. To discover that I was involved in the loss of another's life... it would be crushing, completely devastating to me. It was awful enough to take the calls when someone had just lost a loved one.

I'm lucky to work at a small, slow agency now. It gets, dare I say, boring, at times, but rarely are there huge, life-threatening emergencies to dispatch for. Sometimes, boring is good.

TxT

The Beginning

I'll begin with a bit about myself. My name, for the most part, is Tish. I'm 26 years old, married with 2 cats, currently employed and going to school. I've had some successes and some pretty impressive failures, but I just keep tripping along because I'm too stubborn to give up and too energetic to quit.

I live in the great state of Texas, though El Paso hardly counts as Texas. It's Mexico, it just hasn't quite given up and realized it yet. I'm a native Texan, married to a transplant of 20-something years named Thomas. We've been married about 3.5 years, no kids at this time. (I've negotiated my freedom from children until I hit 29.)

I'm an Army wife, and it's a lifestyle I'm pretty much good with. The Army has been good to both of us, so I support him staying in as long as he likes. I'm beginning an associates program in the summer for Dental Hygiene (not a career I ever thought I'd get into, but you do what you have to.) I work at a small police department, which pays crap but offers a lot of freedom and has some really awesome people (and a few crazy ones.)

I ride a motorcycle (2007 Suzuki SV650) when it's not stupidly cold outside (which it is right now.) As a native Texan, I do love and own guns, but I support smart and safe use and ownership, as well as thorough background checks and waiting periods. I love writing, books, and arts and crafts, all of which I hope to incorporate into this, my shiny new blog. I also wanted a place to unload about recent events and things that weigh on my mind that I really don't feel like arguing about with friends and family. I'm sure everyone with friends and family can sympathize.

So, I guess that's it. Welcome!

-TxT