Cheers to Peggy Noonan

Peggy Noonan won a Pulitzer this week for her work with the Wall Street Journal. Politics aside, she is a writer I respect and admire. I re-watched Reagan's Challenger speech, which she wrote, and in spite of the tragedy, it's so hopeful and comforting. The "Challenger Speech" is an address he made to the nation after a space craft exploded shortly after taking off, killing all seven of the crew, while many people (including children at school) watched it live on television. President Reagan's words to the children were honest and sad - tragedy happens. He said, "I want to say something to the schoolchildren of America who were watching the live coverage of the shuttle's takeoff. I know it is hard to understand, but sometimes painful things like this happen. It's all part of the process of exploration and discovery. It's all part of taking a chance and expanding man's horizons. The future doesn't belong to the fainthearted; it belongs to the brave. The Challenger crew was pulling us into the future, and we'll continue to follow them." Here it is:

Today, that wouldn't be the worst thing our kids have seen on t.v. or in their classrooms. Another elementary school shooting killed a teacher and two kids this week in California - Reagan had a hard day then, but what do we say to kids now about classmates and teachers being gunned down in front of them? "It's sad, but everyone has a right to bear arms and sometimes they use them inappropriately, sweetie. What's your homework tonight?"

American lawmakers are so bothered by children as victims of chemical weapons in Syria so they drop bombs on that country, but continue to bar those children and their families from refugee status protections. As a nation, we can't fathom gun safety laws that protect 7 year olds at school - there couldn't POSSIBLY be a law to address that.

We respond to violence with violence, is it really because we don't know any better? It is a national disgrace that we can't do better for the children of Syria or for the children here who today grow up in a world where they shrug off school shootings because those incidents are commonplace for them. They were not commonplace for me. The Challenger explosion was a jarring national tragedy for my generation which warranted a direct message to little people from the President - so I'm old enough to be completely disgusted and horrified by the inability to act to protect children at school from armed and dangerous lunatics.

I am not against gun rights, but I don't have one because I don't have any need for that kind of hazardous adult toy. I'm dangerous enough behind the wheel of a car, so I'm all set. If you are serious about your gun rights, then you have more responsibility than any of us to protect children from people who do not deserve the rights you enjoy. You have the responsibility to come up with ways to keep guns away from people who want to take innocents with them when they go, or are pissed that they got fired, or that their wife left them, or that Wendy's wouldn't take their expired coupon for a frosty - and just go shoot a place up in retaliation.

Peggy Noonan knew how to write a statement of grief, to say the right thing about a tragedy. Today, tragedy is so commonplace that we're paralyzed to acknowledge it and thus paralyzed to prevent it from happening again and again. A friend gave me some good advice on dealing with the latest school shooting in San Bernadino, California - if you're sickened by it and want to do something, text READY to 64433.