Wednesday was a productive morning. I completed some research and was feeling accomplished. Then two stories hit as I left Starbucks on my way to record my political program.
First, word came down that once more a murderer gunned down many students at a high school. This time it was in Florida. I was disappointed with my initial reaction. It was kind of: “There we go again. Next story.”
Second, NPR featured a story about the difficulty teachers are having purchasing a home in Denver. Did you know Denver was the second-least affordable city for teachers because of real estate prices?
The Florida massacre will be well covered. It is likely to follow the same lame coverage where the excitement is rampant for three to five days. People scream for gun control. And then America loses its attention span for a few weeks, until the next massacre. These events are graphic and painful but sadly, not enough people are dying to make most in the nation feel it is an existential problem for them. Our national level of empathy is still very lacking.
Like the latest school shooting, the story about the teachers is not just a Denver story: it is a national story. Folks in my country of origin revere teachers. It’s appalling that we disregard and disrespect teachers the way we do in the United States. Educating is the most important profession in the country, as educators are the ones who maintain the continuum of knowledge over time.