Weekend Update 17/3/18: Notes on Our Epidemic of Violence

"The Republicans and Democrats alike ignore the underlying causes of school violence—unprecedented social inequality, unending war, the consequences of the militarization of society and the defunding of education and social programs—because a serious examination of the roots of this social phenomenon would expose their own role in creating the social crisis out of which it has developed." Comment: a vital, thought-provoking socio-ecomomic analysis that (correctly) blames Capitalism for USian savagery whether abroad or at home.

    

"I have never spoken with a school shooter, but I’ve talked with many teenage boys and young men who—though behaviorally nonviolent themselves—emotionally connect with the anger, alienation, and hopelessness of school shooters. Regardless of whether they received poor or excellent grades, these teenage boys and young men all tell me that high school was an oppressive experience...Cynical about virtually all societal institutions, these young people... (see) the conservatives’ religion and militarized society and liberals’ schools and shrinks (as) different faces of the same oppressive box...they have no hope that school shootings will decrease because all they hear in the news are authorities’ ideas about how better to control them."  Comment: an essay by a psychologist, vital because it that expands on and thereby authenticates the socio-economic analysis in the preceding essay. 

"While seldom acknowledged, students have a right to engage in political dissent and, more significantly, the entitlement to an education that nurtures their ability to do so." But more importantly see:  "There is no way anyone could object to something so necessary and relevant. Unless, of course, Black people do it." Comment: as noted before, the racism and class warfare implicit in the wildly varying coverage given school shootings is as revealing as the atrocities themselves.   

          

"Farm worker parents of six children die in car crash while fleeing ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) agents...The future of the children remains uncertain."

        

"The (Denver) Post is just the most recent outlet owned by 'vulture' hedge fund Alden Global Capital to face the ax. Alden controls Digital First Media, the country’s second largest newspaper chain, which has a pattern of gutting newsrooms and selling off valuable office space to squeeze profit from the industry." Comment: given the deadliness that defines the U.S. economy, the forthcoming layoffs will send many of its victims to their graves.

"Teachers in Puerto Rico are planning a one-day strike on Monday, 19 March, to protest...

(To read the rest, go here.)