"I knew that day that the ideologies of my past career were no longer relevant to the future that I want, that I demand for my children. Friday changed everything. It must change everything. We all must begin anew and demand that Washington's old way of doing business is no longer acceptable. Entertainment moguls don't have an absolute right to glorify murder while spreading mayhem in young minds across America. And our Bill of Rights does not guarantee gun manufacturers the absolute right to sell military-style, high-caliber, semi-automatic combat assault rifles with high-capacity magazines to whoever the hell they want. It is time for Congress to put children before deadly dogmas. It's time for politicians to start focusing more on protecting our schoolyards than putting together their next fundraiser. It's time for Washington to stop trying to win endless wars overseas when we're losing the war at home ... For the sake of my four children and yours, I choose life and I choose change."
-- Joe Scarborough
This. Exactly.
In one form or another, I've covered news for two decades -- and I've never experienced an event that's shaken me to my very core like the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary. Never. I've never had something so swiftly and assuredly challenge almost everything I believe in and force me to question my own views and the ferocity with which I hold and defend them. Like a lot of people, I've never looked at the images on my TV, read the stories in print, and felt so utterly lost -- and so positive that the risk of taking action is worth the potential reward. No, you can't child-proof the world, but you can fight with everything inside you to at least make it as safe as possible for our kids.
I understand that time will pass and, as with 9/11, things will eventually go back to "normal" -- but they shouldn't. It's such a tired cliché, but we can never forget what happened last Friday because if we do, we'll be betraying all we purport to stand for as a nation and as those with an obligation to be the guardians of the most innocent and trusting among us. If we can't at least try to keep them safe from living nightmares like this, what good are we?
Scarborough's right. How many others stand with him?
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