Monthly Archives: June 2022

Watergate at 50

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Last year I wrote a long essay on the 49th anniversary of the break in at the Watergate Office Building.

I don’t wish to rewrite the article from last year. That said I can’t simply allow the 50th to pass without comment.

Dozens of books have been written about this. I started by reading All The President’s Men and The Final Days. Nearly all the major players wrote books from their own perspective, and I’m currently reading The President’s Man by Dwight Chapin.

Interest in this event and attempted coverup took on new meaning after the 2020 election when President Trump, also feeling he was above the law, committed criminal acts. Nixon wished to ensure his victory in 1972, Trump wished to overrule the will of the voters and remain in office.

The more we know about Watergate the better we can protect our democracy from Trump and his minions.

And Now Uvalde, Texas. Had Enough? The Republican Party Hasn’t.

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Last week we learned the name of another small city with an elementary school: Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. In the last 23 years we’ve also learned about Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado; Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut; Marjorie Stoneman High School in Parkland, Florida. There are several more, but you get the point. Each of these schools lost students to gun violence.

This type of mass murder also happens outside of schools as we learned of shootings at St. Francis Hospital in Tulsa, Oklahoma; Tops Friendly Market in Buffalo, New York; Mandalay Bay Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada; Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, Florida. And this is only a fraction.

I wrote a longer article in 2018 and I don’t wish to repeat it here. I argued that it was time to outlaw the purchase of assault rifles. They have no place in legal activities such as hunting. Simply put, they are weapons of war and are designed only to kill a large number of people in a short time.

After every massacre the National Rifle Association and the Republican Party attempt to frame them as mental health issues. This allows them to divert attention away from the guns and their responsibility for the deaths.

After Sandy Hook in 2012 it briefly appeared that the deaths of students that young would shame those groups into talking seriously about reasonable gun control. Alas, no.

As I write this there are some Republicans who are feigning interest in reasonable legislation and I’d like to believe them. I hope I’m wrong.