Why We March?

I spent my Saturday marching through downtown Houston with a bunch of teenagers.

As I stood on the hill in Tranquility Park listening to young adults, and some straight up children, plead with the adults that run this country to keep them safe, I thought about the idiocy of arming teachers. At one point, a fifth grader moved me to tears as he stated, without any doubt in his voice, that he would stand in between his classmates and a gun man if it would save them.

"I've already lived a pretty good life..." said Desmond Floyd, all ten years of him.

These kids have PTSD from going to school. They talk about watching doors and windows, about planning for the worst possible scenario every second that they are at school, about being worried about catching a bullet instead of catching a bus. I do that shit because I'm a combat veteran. They do it because they're American children. This is not normal. This is not right.

And as this young boy spoke, with police snipers overhead, a helo circling, and what seemed like the entire Houston police department surrounding us, I imagined a teacher in an urban combat situation surrounded by kids.

Walk through this with me:

- Scenario 1 - Shooter in hallway. Teacher in classroom. 

50 children in a small classroom. Teacher and shooter exchange fire through the doorway? What's that look like? Messy. A 9mm handgun versus an ak-47/ar-15 in a small space while you're trying to take careful shots and the rifle wielder is just fucking spraying? Good luck.

15 rounds, MAYBE, versus 30 rounds AT LEAST. How many magazines are we giving these teachers? Is the teacher wearing a vest? Is the gun in a holster on the teacher's leg or locked in a drawer or closet? Where are the spare mags?

Likely outcome = Gunman gets extra gun, more children killed in crossfire than if they'd just locked down in place. 

- Scenario 2 - Shooter and teacher in hallway.

How long is a school hallway? The maximum effective range of a 9mm pistol is generally about 50 meters, definitely so in a combat situation with a moving target and non-combatants in between and behind, so it's already useless. The maximum effective range of an AR-15 is about 500 meters POINT target. That means that a skilled shooter can hit you in the eye at 300 meters.

Likely outcome =  Gunman gets extra gun, more children killed in crossfire than if they'd just locked down in place. 

- Scenario 3 - Shooter and teacher in classroom.

Ever wanted to kick a teacher's ass? Ever had a teacher than you absolutely hated and you knew that you'd kick his ass in a fight? Imagine if he had a pistol. Any other measures, metal detectors, resource officers, video surveillance, are all made completely moot.

Likely outcome = You've just armed your gunman. You bought him the gun, loaded it, put it in his classroom, and then prodded him (Where's your assignment, Billy?) into grabbing it. Now he's free to go from classroom to classroom grabbing guns like it's team fucking deathmatch.

- Scenario 4 - Shooter(s), teachers, and resource officer.

Cop shoots teacher. Gunman shoots cop. Gunman now has three guns and the cops are confused who he is while they roam hallways full of running students and armed teachers trying to find someone that looks like either of them with a gun. And if you had multiple shooters on top of that?

Likely outcome = Absolute fucking carnage.

The scenarios just get dumber from there.

Arming teachers is a fucking stupid idea. In Iraq, we didn't let people get within 5 meters of us because hand to hand is a toss up... But, sure, a teacher should be fine. All teachers are bigger and stronger than their students, right?

They needed fucking snipers so a child could speak into a microphone in a park in downtown Houston steps away from Ted Cruz's office and across the street from city hall... But throw a school teacher a gun and the whole school is safe?

Nah.

Fuck the NRA.

- Soos

P.S. - If Killer Mike doesn't get his shit together I'm done with Run The Jewels and they're my favorite group. I will not support someone that supports the NRA. Period.

Out.

GET OUT AND VOTE!

I know I've been quiet lately but I promise you that it's not because I'm stopping. I've been working on multiple things and trying to stay focused. I get distracted easily. One thing I've been really thinking about lately, and I hope you have, too, is the coming election. I want to get as many people registered and to the polls as possible, regardless of who they're voting for, and, while I'd like to do something HUGE, I'm just not that important. SO.

If you are in Houston and you are not registered to vote or have no way to get to the polls or have some other obstacles in your way that you may need help with - LET ME HELP YOU.

The registration deadline is February 5th. 

Early voting starts on February 20th and ends on March 2nd.

Voting begins in earnest on March 6th.

We all know how this works. You have plenty of time right now so you're not worried about it. However, I really think that people should be much more active in this election than they have been in any others and I think you do, too. Unless you're reading this from Ukraine (Hi, you!) and don't give a shit about when we vote. Or maybe you do.

Either way, we don't have time to waste. If you need a ride, a babysitter, an alibi, a fake doctor's note, etc... let me know. Let's get out and vote.

Remember, Trump is the president not because of how people voted but because of how people didn't. Let's never make that mistake again. We need a real voter turnout so that we can honestly say that our leaders represent the people that elected them, regardless of party affiliation. 

Email me here.

Twitter me here.

- Soos

When the levee breaks.

I've never liked Houston. It's too big. It takes too long to get anywhere. You can't even walk to the store here unless you're fully committed to a 30 minute (min) hike one way. The public transportation is garbage. Traffic is usually awful. It's hot all the time, and it's a wet heat, except when it's freezing cold, and it's a wet cold. It sucks.

But the last few days have really highlighted the one thing about this city that I don't hate. The people. They're just regular Texans. And I love Texans.

Steve Perez, a 60 year old police officer with 34 years under his belt, left his home on Sunday to report for duty. His wife asked him to reconsider. The roads were terrible and things were only getting worse. "I've got work to do." was his reply.

His body was recovered from his flooded police cruiser Tuesday at 8 am. He'd driven two and a half hours trying to find a route to do his duty only to be stopped by rising water at Beltway 8 and Hardy.

Here is a gofundme set up by the SBA for his family.

Samuel Saldivar attempted to brave the flooding to pick up six family members on Sunday in his van. Suddenly, a strong current caught the vehicle and swept it away into Greens Bayou. He tried to get everyone out via the back door but it was too late. Only he survived.

"I'm just hoping we find the bodies." He said later. When the waters receded they did. All of them were still trapped inside the van.

Here is their gofundme.

In Beaumont, just to the east, Collete Sulcer was trying to drive west on an interstate 10 service road with her young child when it became too treacherous for her to continue. She tried to pull into a parking lot nearby but was unable. Exiting her car, she was taken by the strong current, and swept into a canal. Rescuers saw her floating body, her daughter clinging to her still, and managed to catch them both just before they went under a trestle. With the help of a civilian in a truck they were able to get them both to an ambulance. The girl is hypothermic but alive. They were unable to revive the mother.

According to Beaumont police Officer Carol Riley Sulcer "Absolutely" saved her daughter's life.

Here's her daughter, Jordyn's, gofundme.

Alexander Sung, Sixty-four, stayed behind to mind his store. Alexander had been working with clocks for his entire life, as his father before him, and came from China, the youngest of five boys, in his twenties. He'd been working at Accu-Tyme for thirty years, a clock and jewelry repair store, and now owned it. He wasn't leaving it to flood or be looted. "Sweetie, I have to call you back!" He told his daughter Alicia on Saturday evening as he rushed to barricade his shop against the rising waters. His body was found Sunday afternoon, still inside his shop. His last words to his daughter came about fourteen hours prior via a text.

“I love you sweetie,” He told her. “You guys are all I have.”

Andrew Pasek ventured out to save his sister's Maine Coon. He stepped into rising waters electrified by a live wire. His dying act was to push away his friend and say simply, "Don't touch me. I'm dying.".

Here's his gofundme.

Noah Delgado suffered an asthma attack during the flooding that was too severe for his rescue inhaler. Help couldn't get to him soon enough. By the time rescuers got him to the hospital he was not conscious. He would not wake again. They tried. He went from North Cypress Medical Center to Texas Children's Medical in a helicopter too full to take his mother.

On her way to be with him she was trapped by floodwaters. This terrifying ordeal ended in rescue, she thinks by the National Guard, and she eventually found herself at Texas Children's. Upon her arrival, she was greeted with grave news. From the ABC Houston article about him -

She would like Noah remembered as the loving boy he was: a son, brother, friend, classmate. She says he was an "A" student just about to begin the third grade. She describes him as a "character."

"He just loved. He didn't care what you looked like, who you were," she lamented.

Through all this she does not blame anyone else for the circumstances which lead to her son's death. "If anybody, I blame myself...because I'm supposed to keep anything from happening to him," she said.

Here's his Gofundme. 

I'll be adding gofundme links and stories to this as I find them. I compiled the list that follows from everything I've read so far but I'm pretty sure, unfortunately, that it is not yet even close to complete.

Manuel Saldivar, 84 - Gofundme
Belia Saldivar, 81 - Gofundme
Daisy Saldivar, 6 - Gofundme
Xavier Saldivar, 8 - Gofundme
Dominic Saldivar, 14 - Gofundme
Devy Saldivar, 16 - Gofundme
Agnes Stanley, 89
Travis Lynn Callihan, 45
Alexander Sung, 64
Noah Delgado, 8 - Gofundme
Batool Qasem, 76
Benito Cavazos Juarez, 42
Calvin Oran Montalbano, 54
Andrew Pasek, 25 - Gofundme
Jorge Raul Perez, 33
Colby Henry Osorno, 25
Victor Manuel Acevedo, 67
Ruben Jordan, 58
Wilma Ratcliff Ellis, 73
Ruben Clifford Jordan, 58
Martin Salazar, 49
Michael Tucker, 66
Keisha Monique Williams, 32
Yahir Rubio-Vizuet, 45 - Gofundme
Gustavo Hernandez Rodriguez, 40 - Gofundme
Collette Sulcer, 41 - Gofundme
Joshua Feuerstein, 33
Efrain Angel, 26 - Gofundme
Lisa Jones, 60
Donald Rogers, 65
Rochelle Rogers, 58
Ronald Zaring, 82
Ola Mae Winfrey-Crooks, 82

Here is a general link to hurricane Harvey related gofundme pages.



Houston needs all the help that it can get right now. I'm thankful that it's a place full of people that are more than willing to do so. This is a city of heroes and in the shadow of this tragedy that's something we can all draw a little strength from.