BIG TRUCKS FOR BIG JOBS

If you’ve got a big job, I mean really big, you’ll need big trucks to get ‘er done.

Why big trucks? Because big jobs usually have a delivery component. You may not need the truck ‘on’ the job, but you’ll need a visit.

Building a house? Big trucks are in your future.

Building a skyscraper? A big truck is bringing over a crane.

Changing gun laws to avoid mass shooting? There are no trucks big enough to deliver that, but there is a solution.

To this point nothing has taken hold on preventing mass shooting. Two events in twenty four hours, with more today, might be the the right time to speak up.

If not now, when? If not us, who? Robert Kennedy said those words, or something close, before he was gunned down. Let’s say it together: “IF NOT NOW, WHEN? IF NOT US, WHO?”

Too loud? Probably not as loud as the gun one shooter used. The guy was even wearing ear protection from the grainy pic I saw.

If not now, when?

Now is a good time for Texas to lead the nation in gun control debate. Since it’s coming from Texas, more people will take it seriously. Oregon had a shooter in Roseburg that got talked about. President Obama came for a visit. Most of what I heard from facebook was ‘why is he here? What’s he going to do?’

What can a president do during a tragedy? Plenty. Obama was President when I found out cancer needed a new patsy, me. Call it Obamacare, or ACA for Affordable Care Act, but with the guy who signed the legislation leading the country, he also led me.

Learn to give a damn

Mr. Trump doesn’t have the same cache of caring. Once a man or woman, but I’ll speak for men because I’ve seen them work, once they disassociate from the social norm of marriage, kids, work, life together, it’s easy to let more fall by the wayside.

Once guys free themselves up from normal life it takes more and more to interest them. More wives, more kids, more secrets, more stories, more to explain, than the boring trope of married with kids.

Guys living the big life get together and compare ex-wives, current girlfriends, and where to find the next ex-wife and current girlfriend. They also practice remembering their kids’ names and where they are in case some swinging dick asks, which they won’t.

There’s no truck big enough to carry the load of a man weighted by a past he cares little about, no scale calibrated to measure such bullshit.

Obama didn’t cure cancer; he didn’t solve the mass shootings. All he did was give a sense of hope. People stuck in a phase of life that feels like a final phase need a little boost, a notice that they’re on the minds of those who matter.

Mr. Trump matters even if he isn’t very supportive of pre-existing conditions. Gun violence is a pre-existing condition he inherited and the poor guy seems a little stymied. He’ll listen to hacks traveling as experts explain mass shooting as a result of single shooter video games; that mass shooting comes from no prayer in school.

Mr. Trump is at a disadvantage in the gun message because he has shortcomings. Has he ever shot a gun? Killed something with a gun? Cleaned a gun? Has Mr. Trump had family touched by gun violence? If he was familiar with guns he’d know the difference between a single shot, semi-auto, auto, revolver, clip, rounds, caliber.

There is no ivory tower tall enough to not feel the evidence of gun violence, no midtown apartment lush enough to cover the sounds, and no closet dark enough to hide from the anguish. Mr. Trump has shown he can handle big trucks, let’s hope he can start something on gun control.