One of Obama's aides later disclosed that he had gone to Sandy Hook and met with all of the parents who wanted to see him, one on one. Obama had to take long "bathroom" breaks between each family and the staff kept telling him he could leave but he refused. One mother lost it and was screaming and flailing at him and he waived off the Secret Service and stood there and let her scream.
I dont think I could've done it. I know many of our other presidents could not have handled that level of pain being launched at them.
IIRC, he asked every family, "tell me about your child." And he listened. He then worked what he learned in those conversations into his speech, sharing what he could about the lives that were stolen that day. I think that's what he's doing in the photo here--making the last revisions to the speech to add in more personal details about the victims.
For better or worse the US political system is intended to keep a president from unilaterally making sweeping decisions like that. It's not really valid to lay it at Obama's feet that he couldn't take unconstitutional action and address gun violence without the input of Congress.
Can't even make change with congress, remember Trump's own Supreme Court nominees tossed out the bump stock panic ban in response to the Vegas shooting.
And Obama couldn't even get the CDC to comment on gun violence or recommendations to reduce the suicide rate if a gun was involved, without putting the CDC funding at risk due to the Dickey amendment.
Dickey later regretted the role he'd played in shutting down CDC research into gun violence, but it was too little and too late. The NRA effectively bought decades of ignorance and silence on the issue.
Yeah... Trump is a terrible example at what a president can't do... you know, with all the laws his current administration continues to break and face no repercussions.
For better or worse the US political system is intended to keep a president from unilaterally making sweeping decisions like that.
That's funny because we are seeing in real time Trump given carte blanche to commit war crimes & target vulnerable populations with zero repercussions.
We will never recover from the damage he’s done and crimes against our Republic for which he gets a pass for every time. J6th was the tipping point. We could have gone two ways after that shameful day: 1. Call it for what it was and punish him immediately. Or 2. Ignore, shrug our shoulders, and start complaining about the price of eggs. We chose the latter, and he has been rewarded time and time again for his cruelty. Once that size of cat is out of the bag in a constitutional republic, it ain’t going back.
As an outsider it really is astonishing to look at; that you all knew what he was like and still voted for him again. Like I could forgive it if it was his first term and you didn't know how bad he would be, but jfc, it was all right in front of you and you guys voted for this. It's amazing how this will go down in history and people will act dumb like the signs weren't there, J6 alone was your wake up call. I honestly think your system of government with it's checks and balances needs a complete overhaul... Which will never happen, sure you can't even get Congress to vote against Congress being allowed to own stock... It's all been set up for blatant corruption
Exactly people don’t understand how little power presidents actually have. They can recommend anything they want but it still has to pass the senate and the house.
I remember this day like it was yesterday. It was the day my husband and I decided to move to Australia—if sandy hook couldn’t convince people that common sense gun laws were necessary, then nothing could. And it keeps happening.
We just had our first mass shooting in Australia since 1996 yesterday; some of the more conservative politicians had started to trim back some of the strong gun laws that were signed into law within a week of the 1996 shooting.
I actually had recently moved to the United States. This was the first massive shooting that I experienced while actually being here.
I remember watching the news and crying and feeling angry and deeply sad.
I wish I could still muster that level of emotion when another one happens... the kids deserve us having that kind of reaction, but the frequency has numbed me a bit.
I remember sitting in my living room watching the news while my baby was in her room asleep. I just cried, because I knew that it wasn’t ever gonna get better. They let babies die. And nothing changed.
Fuck I miss a president that can speak logically, clearly, and matter of factly. Can you imagine Trump saying a single thing Obama did here? He's all buzzwords and blame.
I don't understand how people can think of Trump as presidential when we had 8 years of Obama. It doesn't matter if you disagree, I certainly don't think he had the best policy ideas, but fuck if he wasn't a person I can actually respect.
I think the worst part of this is that he made it twice. We saw what he was like the first term and it happened again. That's when I felt hopeless here. I sincerely hope that we can get back to what a normal president is like.
He didn't just react as though every question was a dig at his ego. The questioner made baseless accusations and then called out Obama's district directly as problematic, and yet there was just a firm, but quiet denial. No flipping out, no name calling, no telling him to shut up. Then he followed up with WHY things haven't been able to improve in his own district. It's unheard of in these days of shrieking rhetoric.
Yep, Trump's response would be something to the effect of "Who do you work for? You're a terrible person for believing fake news shame on you" immediately trying to dig into the reputation of a news reporter or whatever he's responding to. And then never addressing the question at all.
I know he probably wouldn't want to but if Obama ran against Trump for a third term. That would be a show down for ages. The supreme court says Trump can run again so Obama can too.
An Obama vs Trump election run would be the ultimate final showdown the MAGA cult wants. Keep in mind that Obama is their Satan-figure, while Trump is their salvation from Obama. That kind of election is, without any exaggeration, the final battle between good vs evil in the eyes of the evangelical right.
And ours too, frankly. I (a very white man) dated a black woman for a while years back and she used to say that the way white republicans treated Obama should have made the racism coursing through the blood of America obvious to everyone, and that it didn't or that so many didn't care was even more proof of that racism. Here was the best black man of his generation vs the worst white man, and some white people still chose the white guy
When Obama was elected a second time, somebody told me to search for the “n” word on Twitter. Pages and pages of people typing things like “We shouldn't have a…”, and “My president will never be a …”
I was shocked that people would post such words, and that Twitter allowed it. I was so innocent back then.
This particular sun didn’t need to be perfect. No one in the position of president can ever claim to be perfect, but what matters is the integrity they held and the work they committed themselves to make a better country for everyone that calls it their home. We had a president who let grieving parents shout and scream at him and shoulder the blame for murders that ultimately were not his fault.
We really don’t know what we have until we lose it. He was far from a perfect president, but I was at least proud to call Obama my president.
Love him or hate him, politics-wise, Obama was a solid dude. He was compassionate, down to earth, and was genuinely sympathetic to victims of tragedies like this. We need a president who is a decent human being as well as a good leader. Both seem to be rare these days with our political leaders.
I realize that no one person is ever perfect, human nature applies to everyone. But it was really nice having a kind, respectful, thoughtful, and encouraging president in the White House.
This is why we have nostalgia for Bush Jr. While he was an objectively bad President, at least he had a level of decorum that we simply don't have from Trump.
When his presidency ended, I was 16 and devastated and wrote a letter to the White House. I did in fact receive a letter, which I guess gets generated and several people get one. But it was pretty cool. It’s one of my best things to have
Those fuckers actually joked that he had an onion under the podium. I know they can’t imagine caring about children more than guns but perhaps they could maybe wrap their minds around someone shedding a tear over the slaughter of 6 year olds.
Can you even imagine Trump doing this? There are no pictures of Trump sitting at a desk reading anything, much less writing. I don’t mean signing pardons either and executive orders written by a sycophant. I don’t believe Trump has ever written a speech after listening to many of his ramblings, someone else must write something that he just ignores. I don’t think he’s even capable of the internal dialogue, or the empathy needed to sit and write a heartfelt message to grieving families. I present you this article from today for example.
There was that time where he didnt like a reporters question so he shambled off to the desk and shuffled some papers around like he was "busy working"... but thats about as close as I have ever seen him to be "writing". (Besides signing his own name but that hardly counts)
That's the same infamous interview in which Dickerson talks about the metaphor of the Oval office having no corners to hide in and Trump doesn't understand and is like, "yeah there's no corners in here"
At one point I followed some link on reddit and it was pictures from Sandy Hook. No pictures of the kids or anything, but just blood all over these classrooms.
I wept for like 30 minutes. It was just so much more crushing seeing those photos than ever hearing about it on the news.
I don't know what my point is but this shit is fucked up man.
I was an engineering major at Brown - graduated about a decade ago. The shooting that happened yesterday happened in the building that was basically my second home in college. I used to sit in the lobby and study with my shoes off at all hours. It’s hitting a lot closer to home this time. Definitely hits very differently than just reading about it.
I was at Purdue when my downstairs roommate murdered his fellow TA. I still have nightmares occasionally about getting woken up by the police the morning it happened (I got home at 3am from out of town, didn't have class til 330pm, and it happened at like 10am), including how exactly his body was desecrated after being shot.
Sorrow to see someone else who can relate. I'm a Saugus High alumni. The shooting happened a few yards from where my friends and I used to hang out for lunch. Those memories will forever be tainted by this knowledge. It feels violating. I'm sorry you're going through this. It takes time to process. It's not something that ever goes away.
I watched the documentary The Truth vs Alex Jones, which focused much more on the Sandy Hook families and what happened than I was expecting. The investigator basically describing the last moments of those children combined with the home movies of the kids was absolutely devastating. It's been over a year and I'm still not over it. (Also my kid is that age now and it's difficult to not spiral thinking about it.)
My son was only a year younger than those babies and it hit so close to home. And I was suffering from PPD from my second baby. I had to leave work that day. I’m still not over it.
I remember during history class seeing some photos from what I seem to remember was the Kent State shooting. Not as many deaths as a lot of others, but the image of the one girl screaming while kneeling over one of the victims made me both sad and sick. The fact that this happens pretty much every week, if not more, since the 1970s is a disgusting tragedy.
Anyone who claims to be "pro-life" or screams "think of the children" but refuses to give up their guns or even just accept gun reform policies, to save literally hundreds of kids, teens, and adults every year is a hypocrite. I'm convinced some of them literally do not have any concept of empathy within their bloated, hateful husks of human existence.
Your point is for sure valid, but I do think it's worth noting that Kent State was pretty different from these school shootings. Kent State was perpetrated by the National Guard because students were protesting the Vietnam War.
The Bible they supposedly read and comprehend and live by says that Jesus wept over the death of Lazarus. Right before raising Lazarus from the dead! If Jesus can empathize with people who are grieving, shouldn’t that mean it’s okay for us mere mortals to do the same?
I really don’t understand these “Warriors for Christ”.
Never heard that but go figure coming from the party that thinks we are crazy for questioning how fast a "bullet grazed ear" can heal on a 79 year old.
The growth in Trump’s personal wealth since the commencement of his second administration outstrips the peak lifetime wealth of all 45 other presidents combined.
Watch him cry endlessly about it if he gets impeached again. "It's because everything is rigged against me!!!" Must be tough being a criminal and completely stupid.
Honestly, most Republicans until the last decade or so. Like I *definitely* did not want Mitt Romney to become president...but, had he, I wasn't worried that he was going to literally destroy the country.
I remember thinking he would bring Mormonism into the White House in a big way and that scared me. But now, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, on that idea nothing’s worse than project 2025.
If you miss this era at all, check out the book Grace by Cody Keenan. He was one of Obama's speechwriters. The book covers a particularly wild 10 day span of the Obama presidency and is VERY good. Bonus points for the author doing a great job of narrating the audiobook.
The worst downgrade in presidential history from Obama to the ochre sack of shit we are saddled with today. He wasn’t perfect by any means but he was tactful, intelligent, levelheaded and always gave off a feeling that he actually gave a shit about this country and its citizens unlike a certain moldy orangutan I could mention.
His speechwriter wrote a book (Grace by Cody Keenan-highly recommend) about how he had to help him write speeches both for the Charleston church shooting and two pretty momentous SCOTUS decisions and he talks about how much went into just his tweets. Like multiple people approved them and considered how they should and would sound. And yet...here we are.
The Trump version would be a picture of him trying to forcefully kiss a little girl that escaped the shooting before he went on stage to talk about himself and probably how magnets don't work in water.
And telling the parents who just lost their kids “if we have stricter gun control laws you’re not going to have a country anymore” or some insensitive shit, while also finding a way to work in blaming Democrats for it, of course.
I have a lot of gripes about the US, but god do I miss this level of common decency and leadership. The current admin has to be the most heartless, ruthless and incompentant I have witnessed in my entire life.
I remember as a kid in Australia I looked up to the US during Obama's administration, the little I did know of such a far away place seemed way more put together than the constant news you'd hear about during Rudd, Gillard and Abbott. Now we really just feel sorry for the US and how childish its all become, and I know a lot of Australians including myself have the moment every month where we wake up, check the headlines, go out to the kitchen and say to your family "so guess what the US is doing now..."
Well, from the US, we wake up every morning too see which country or leader Trump has insulted in the world or what new scam he’s running under the guise of “leadership”. I was relieved when that first term was done. But like jock itch, it’s back again.
Approaching sixty, and as much as I despise some previous presidents, the current administration’s lack of any desire to be the “pastor in chief” or “supportive grandparent” in a moment of national tragedy is starkly in contrast to every other administration I’ve lived through. Since the invention of national broadcast media the president’s ability to get airtime and call people together has made some pretty awful periods of history just a bit less awful.
The biggest example for me in current memory is probably when George W Bush, not known for being a great orator, spoke in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 to call for religious tolerance when we had people on the radio calling for mass reprisals against Muslims, and folks beating up Sikhs because they were too stupid to understand the difference between a Sikh and a Muslim. Despite everything I dislike about Bush/Cheney that was a defining moment where he did what a president is supposed to do
Trump never writes anything, he (obviously) goes off the cuff.
Combined with the Alzheimer's (that he definitely has), and we get his daily word salads.
Slide in a few jabs or 20 at Democrats for no reason. He could classify the shooting at Bondi beach as a far left radical attack because someone in his administration happens to have the same name and people would believe him.
Brown University shooting? He'll say he's always been the biggest supporter of the African American community.
Obama used to read around 4 hours a day during his presidency just to be up to date with every briefings, press releases and other documents he needed to actually do the president job....
I don't think Trump has read a briefing note this year lol
And the right wing television had a field day ridiculing him for shedding tears during the speech. The guy gets choked up in the presence of a couple dozen grieving families and that's the part they ran with, it was disgusting among things that are disgusting.
In spite of all the attempts to besmirch Obama (and his wife) his administration had the least amount of scandals and drama, we truly didn't know how good we had it.
Also another thing you can't forget in the past like 10 years (and maybe even longer, don't know the older presidents) that presidents are way too old, like Obama was like 60? and both trump and biden should have long been retired
There was a thing I saw here the other day that was a chart of who the British monarch was when all of the US presidents were born.
Obama is the only one (so far) born during the reign of Elizabeth II. She reigned for more than seventy years. She came to the throne in 1952, and every president since Bush Sr, other than Obama, was born before she came to the throne. And Bush Sr was only two years older than Elizabeth II.
I was born a few months before Clinton was elected in 1992, so every president who has served a full term in my lifetime (other than Obama) was born before Elizabeth II came to the throne.
He gets disgusted by people getting injured and doesn't want to see that. He's spoken about a time someone was bleeding and Trumps concern was for the beautiful white floor, not the guy who hit his head and was bleeding.
Yup. You can argue that he didn't get everything right. But, damn, the man was decent. And appropriate. And very much of the mind that the office of POTUS is so much bigger than the one person who inhabits it.
He once left the White House in the wee hours of the morning to meet a flight carrying 18 fallen soldiers. Quietly stood at attention for 45 minutes along side the honor guard. Would not leave until the bitter end. Also met with the family of each Sandy Hook victim privately.
I have yet to know of a President that was infallible. But I never got the feeling that Obama ruled to serve only himself. And at this point, that’s really all I’m asking for in a president.
Yea, I’m not an Obama fan for a lot of reasons (mainly foreign policy) but he obviously did care deeply about these children, and their parents. His speech was beyond moving, and I wish so much that more action was taken after this. I really thought it would be a turning point… once I realized it wouldn’t, that’s when I knew America would never ever change.
Had this happened today, all the current admin would spew would be about how the shooter was lgbtq or a dem or whatever.
I’d still say the genuine emotion Obama showed in the immediate aftermath of the Sandy Hook shooting began my shift away the conservative beliefs I was raised on.
I remember reading something by a former conservative who explained what it felt like the first time he actually LISTENED to Barack and Michelle talk about something. Without that veil of hating them hanging over it, and without the need to somehow hear evil in their words. It sounded equally liberating and depressing (because it was the moment he realized how much time he wasted hating them for reasons other people gave him).
Unsurprisingly, that’s why conservative media stopped showing Obama talking pretty quickly in his presidency. Well, they’d show it but he would usually either be muted or they’d talk over him. People gravitated to his words, and it was dangerous for them to have him be anything's other a caricature of a black, liberal elite that they wanted to paint him as.
Sorry this turned into a much longer post than what I initially intended to type up. to;dr Sandy Hook was one of the first really big tragedies that i remember in my life and the fact that the Republican party reacted with anything less than horror and disgust was shocking to me.
I'm not the person you asked but that was about the time I started to really think critically about the right wing party that I had been raised to believe was "correct" (in quotes because neither political party is "correct" IMO).
But I was raised on Fox News and Sean Hannity so a lot of my formative youth was spent thinking that those views were right and the Democrats really didnt care about the law of the land, about the drug/gay/"Islam" problem (depending on the year), and that everything they said was just lip service in the south park PC Principal type of way. Compared that to how the Republicans wanted a strong nation through a strong military, upheld the law, and that they were more focused on a solid economy than the more "soft" points like social issues.
Really, i started distancing myself from Republicans during Obamas first election because even 12 year old me could see that the birth certificate thing was just very thinly veiled racism. But I figured that it was just a weird election and at least Romney was a somewhat competent candidate.
Then Obamas terms continued onwards and I continued to get older, more education, and more politically involved and I started to see that it wasn't just a weird election and that the Republican party really did hold a lot of these racist beliefs and that they would campaign on policies that i was taught about in high school (things like "well if X group becomes citizens then the country is doomed!!!!" which is still a common thought these days). And that the Republican party didn't care about "the law of the land" or "economy stability" or "the needs of the little man" than any other party does.
But then came Sandy Hook. Where 20 children were killed. I know it wasn't the first major shooting but it was the first major shooting in my life and it made a huge impact on me. Now all of a sudden school shootings weren't just something we read about, but not we are doing active shooter drills, and it's something our parents have to worry about, it was children the same age as my younger brother. And this shooting, where 20 children were murdered, had the president crying in front of the nation. It was an incredibly powerful moment for me. And it was mocked by the Republican party. He was called weak, they joked about someone putting onions under the podium, his speech was called a PR stunt. Because he cried over 20 little kids being snuffed out. And then Alex Jones and the like continued to harass the families, vandalize and destroy the graves, and drag this even through the public eye for years and years and years. And then at the same time the Democratic president was there on site, was there consoling the families, was there to talk to the police and the media. At the same time the Democratic party tried to make this a stance, tried to enact better gun control, tried to make schools safer, tried to get the nation to understand that this isn't a thing that happens anywhere else.
There's a lot more about how I shifted my political views, so I just kept this focused on Sandy Hook. But I'm a pretty open book so if you have more questions (and are willing to engage in good faith!) I am more than willing to answer!
This image always makes me tear up, because it's so human. At this moment, he isn't the President of the United States of America, he's a father who has just heard that there's been a shooting at a school his daughters could have attended in another life. He's a father preparing to address the parents of children who have just been murdered. Barack Obama represented the best of us.
This was a man with honest intentions who took his job seriously. Unlike the current President who seems to just work this job to profit from it financially and to boast his ego.
Politics aside, I miss the days when America was run by competent people who weren't just there to see how many public resources they could steal for themselves. We've fallen so far in the last decade it's hard to see how we're gonna get out of it. I really don't know if we will.
This country has always been wacky, but omg did white racists freak out because Obama was elected. Racists are trying to teach us a stupid lesson, and unfortunately, they’re succeeding.
To this day, I still see memes posted by Trumpers about how Obama did nothing but divide. They think he was a divider because he had a different skin color. No other reason.
"It's a tragedy. Some people are saying it's a Democrat hoax, however. I'm not saying it but some people are. The Democrats already tried to impeach me and that was a hoax. They said "collusion" with Russia but that was a hoax. AOC said I wasn't fit for office, nasty woman she is. Nasty. I've dropped grocery prices, gas, more Americans are getting paid more than they were under the Sleepy Biden administration. I have people coming up to me saying, 'Thank you, Mr. President. My kids love you!' The kids that died today would've loved me too, tragedy..."
On the paper in front of him, would've been a stick figure with boobs
I’m glad we stepped away from the pesky Harvard law school civil rights attorney presidents and got someone who knows how to dye their face and rape children.
The worst part of that tragedy is that looking back — everyone kind of knew at the time in their guts that this was the true litmus test for change on gun control. The legislation failed thanks to the tea party GOP and tbh what insight into how dark the soul of America really was at the time.
I'm a kindergarten aide and we have a plan if anything goes down. We're not going to be sitting around, we plan to get them out through the windows. Yeah, we have the drills but we aren't going to be fish in a barrel.
For those that don't know, the kids are scared during these drills. We turn off the lights, keep quiet and act like it's just an official quiet time but they're not stupid.
Anyone else kinda view Sandy Hook as their 9/11? Where everything changed in some way or another. For me it just showed that America was already a shit hole. Collectively as a nation we saw a classroom full of dead ELEMENTARY SCHOOL KIDS and did literally fucking nothing. Hell there’s still a significant number of idiots who think it was staged. If that couldn’t drive a nation to action, then literally nothing can and we deserve whatever horrible shit happens to this shit hole.
i miss when the leader of our country was a decent, caring, intelligent man who actually cared about the people of this country. i miss when our president wrote speeches carefully and with measured words instead of it being the ramblings of a dementia ridden rapist and pedophile
The sad reality is that if Sandy Hook happened today, it would be a day's report and the world would forget about it in under 24 hours. Back when Sandy Hook happened, school shootings still weren't as crazy out-of-control even though they existed. Now it's just culture.
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One of Obama's aides later disclosed that he had gone to Sandy Hook and met with all of the parents who wanted to see him, one on one. Obama had to take long "bathroom" breaks between each family and the staff kept telling him he could leave but he refused. One mother lost it and was screaming and flailing at him and he waived off the Secret Service and stood there and let her scream.
I dont think I could've done it. I know many of our other presidents could not have handled that level of pain being launched at them.
I remember hearing about that.
IIRC, he asked every family, "tell me about your child." And he listened. He then worked what he learned in those conversations into his speech, sharing what he could about the lives that were stolen that day. I think that's what he's doing in the photo here--making the last revisions to the speech to add in more personal details about the victims.
That. That right there is what a great president does.
I miss Obama.
That's what a good president does. A great president actually tackles gun crime so this kind of thing doesn't keep happening regularly.
For better or worse the US political system is intended to keep a president from unilaterally making sweeping decisions like that. It's not really valid to lay it at Obama's feet that he couldn't take unconstitutional action and address gun violence without the input of Congress.
Can't even make change with congress, remember Trump's own Supreme Court nominees tossed out the bump stock panic ban in response to the Vegas shooting.
And Obama couldn't even get the CDC to comment on gun violence or recommendations to reduce the suicide rate if a gun was involved, without putting the CDC funding at risk due to the Dickey amendment.
Dickey later regretted the role he'd played in shutting down CDC research into gun violence, but it was too little and too late. The NRA effectively bought decades of ignorance and silence on the issue.
Yeah... Trump is a terrible example at what a president can't do... you know, with all the laws his current administration continues to break and face no repercussions.
That's funny because we are seeing in real time Trump given carte blanche to commit war crimes & target vulnerable populations with zero repercussions.
Trump is a special case and when MAGA loses power, there needs to be a ton of reform. The US is damaged for the next decade at the very least.
We will never recover from the damage he’s done and crimes against our Republic for which he gets a pass for every time. J6th was the tipping point. We could have gone two ways after that shameful day: 1. Call it for what it was and punish him immediately. Or 2. Ignore, shrug our shoulders, and start complaining about the price of eggs. We chose the latter, and he has been rewarded time and time again for his cruelty. Once that size of cat is out of the bag in a constitutional republic, it ain’t going back.
As an outsider it really is astonishing to look at; that you all knew what he was like and still voted for him again. Like I could forgive it if it was his first term and you didn't know how bad he would be, but jfc, it was all right in front of you and you guys voted for this. It's amazing how this will go down in history and people will act dumb like the signs weren't there, J6 alone was your wake up call. I honestly think your system of government with it's checks and balances needs a complete overhaul... Which will never happen, sure you can't even get Congress to vote against Congress being allowed to own stock... It's all been set up for blatant corruption
Bro....he had an entire Senate who said they will tank everything he does. He isn't Ceasar. He tried.
Exactly people don’t understand how little power presidents actually have. They can recommend anything they want but it still has to pass the senate and the house.
I guess people just never questioned why the executive branch is called executive and not legislative.
You need a working House of Representatives and Senate for any meaningful gun legislation. What was he supposed to do?
And a Supreme Court not chasing commas around.
i’m crying reading this.
Me too, this day was such a tragedy and it’s unbelievable that we let this happen over and over again.
I remember this day like it was yesterday. It was the day my husband and I decided to move to Australia—if sandy hook couldn’t convince people that common sense gun laws were necessary, then nothing could. And it keeps happening. We just had our first mass shooting in Australia since 1996 yesterday; some of the more conservative politicians had started to trim back some of the strong gun laws that were signed into law within a week of the 1996 shooting.
I actually had recently moved to the United States. This was the first massive shooting that I experienced while actually being here.
I remember watching the news and crying and feeling angry and deeply sad.
I wish I could still muster that level of emotion when another one happens... the kids deserve us having that kind of reaction, but the frequency has numbed me a bit.
I remember sitting in my living room watching the news while my baby was in her room asleep. I just cried, because I knew that it wasn’t ever gonna get better. They let babies die. And nothing changed.
It isn’t just being let to happen, it is sadly being promoted to happen by profiteers.
And then we elected a child sex trafficker
I knew that day that if nothing happened over this tragedy, nothing was ever going to happen. This country is too selfish to care.
And then absolutely nothing changed and the murders kept happening to this day.
Obama addressed that issue, too. No one will allow reasonable gun laws. It's vile.
Fuck I miss a president that can speak logically, clearly, and matter of factly. Can you imagine Trump saying a single thing Obama did here? He's all buzzwords and blame.
I don't understand how people can think of Trump as presidential when we had 8 years of Obama. It doesn't matter if you disagree, I certainly don't think he had the best policy ideas, but fuck if he wasn't a person I can actually respect.
I think the worst part of this is that he made it twice. We saw what he was like the first term and it happened again. That's when I felt hopeless here. I sincerely hope that we can get back to what a normal president is like.
He didn't just react as though every question was a dig at his ego. The questioner made baseless accusations and then called out Obama's district directly as problematic, and yet there was just a firm, but quiet denial. No flipping out, no name calling, no telling him to shut up. Then he followed up with WHY things haven't been able to improve in his own district. It's unheard of in these days of shrieking rhetoric.
Yep, Trump's response would be something to the effect of "Who do you work for? You're a terrible person for believing fake news shame on you" immediately trying to dig into the reputation of a news reporter or whatever he's responding to. And then never addressing the question at all.
Didn’t he say that that was the hardest day of his entire presidency?
I believe he did.
Fuck man, I miss Obama.
I know he probably wouldn't want to but if Obama ran against Trump for a third term. That would be a show down for ages. The supreme court says Trump can run again so Obama can too.
An Obama vs Trump election run would be the ultimate final showdown the MAGA cult wants. Keep in mind that Obama is their Satan-figure, while Trump is their salvation from Obama. That kind of election is, without any exaggeration, the final battle between good vs evil in the eyes of the evangelical right.
And ours too, frankly. I (a very white man) dated a black woman for a while years back and she used to say that the way white republicans treated Obama should have made the racism coursing through the blood of America obvious to everyone, and that it didn't or that so many didn't care was even more proof of that racism. Here was the best black man of his generation vs the worst white man, and some white people still chose the white guy
The famous LBJ quote comes to mind.
When Obama was elected a second time, somebody told me to search for the “n” word on Twitter. Pages and pages of people typing things like “We shouldn't have a…”, and “My president will never be a …”
I was shocked that people would post such words, and that Twitter allowed it. I was so innocent back then.
Michelle said in her book “Becoming” that it was the only time in 8 years he called and asked her to cancel all her plans and come be with him.
Damn.
I don't care - Melania
I have no words. We had the sun even with flaws. Now we have the devil.
This particular sun didn’t need to be perfect. No one in the position of president can ever claim to be perfect, but what matters is the integrity they held and the work they committed themselves to make a better country for everyone that calls it their home. We had a president who let grieving parents shout and scream at him and shoulder the blame for murders that ultimately were not his fault.
We really don’t know what we have until we lose it. He was far from a perfect president, but I was at least proud to call Obama my president.
Edit: typo
Love him or hate him, politics-wise, Obama was a solid dude. He was compassionate, down to earth, and was genuinely sympathetic to victims of tragedies like this. We need a president who is a decent human being as well as a good leader. Both seem to be rare these days with our political leaders.
Sense of humor AND humility...
Utterly absent in the current officeholder
It's sad that despite his faults with other things, he set the bar so fucking high for future presidents to aim towards.
Everybody in the world wants a president that gives a shit about them, despite their class system
The oligarchs didn’t like that the people were getting uppity.
The people thinking their politicians should represent them rather than the moneyed interests? Preposterous!
We can’t have politicians that even give crumbs to the masses.
Later, the wealthy: “Why am I seeing so many guillotines lately?”
Because Obama was an excellent president. Trump is a child fucker sponsored by enemies of the constitution and this beautiful country.
Trump can’t even remember the reason he’s in most places. He just uses the same phrases and parrots what others say all the time.
DJT would’ve had that woman arrested on the spot and went to go play 18.
He wouldn't even be around to let that woman near. He's above talking with poor people unless it's the idiots he's trying to get votes from
Wow America sounds like it used to be a proper country
I realize that no one person is ever perfect, human nature applies to everyone. But it was really nice having a kind, respectful, thoughtful, and encouraging president in the White House.
Like him or not, I didn't know how good we had it.
This is why we have nostalgia for Bush Jr. While he was an objectively bad President, at least he had a level of decorum that we simply don't have from Trump.
When his presidency ended, I was 16 and devastated and wrote a letter to the White House. I did in fact receive a letter, which I guess gets generated and several people get one. But it was pretty cool. It’s one of my best things to have
He hardly called anyone a fat pig at all /s
Remember when a President’s words were measured and mattered?
Remember when they gave him shit for shedding a tear while discussing rhe horrific mass murder of a bunch of innocent grade schoolers?
The mustard and tan suit shit was one thing, but that really cemented in my mind that these people are fucking psychopaths.
Fox News called Mister Rogers evil.
Mister fucking Rogers.
of all reasons, because Mr. Rogers believed 'every child is special'... wtf is wrong with those psychos?
And Miss Rachel is the world's leading anti-Semite too of course
I remember that. But then again it makes sense. MAGA has now pretty much replaced Jesus with Charlie Kirk.
Those fuckers actually joked that he had an onion under the podium. I know they can’t imagine caring about children more than guns but perhaps they could maybe wrap their minds around someone shedding a tear over the slaughter of 6 year olds.
Can you even imagine Trump doing this? There are no pictures of Trump sitting at a desk reading anything, much less writing. I don’t mean signing pardons either and executive orders written by a sycophant. I don’t believe Trump has ever written a speech after listening to many of his ramblings, someone else must write something that he just ignores. I don’t think he’s even capable of the internal dialogue, or the empathy needed to sit and write a heartfelt message to grieving families. I present you this article from today for example.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/politics/general/things-can-happen-trump-grilled-over-brown-university-remark-as-critics-question-his-empathy/ar-AA1SkTf3
There was that time where he didnt like a reporters question so he shambled off to the desk and shuffled some papers around like he was "busy working"... but thats about as close as I have ever seen him to be "writing". (Besides signing his own name but that hardly counts)
Now he calls them names and stupid to their face immediately. And they love him for that.
haha good memory. I think you're referring to this moment with John Dickerson in 2017.
That's the same infamous interview in which Dickerson talks about the metaphor of the Oval office having no corners to hide in and Trump doesn't understand and is like, "yeah there's no corners in here"
At one point I followed some link on reddit and it was pictures from Sandy Hook. No pictures of the kids or anything, but just blood all over these classrooms.
I wept for like 30 minutes. It was just so much more crushing seeing those photos than ever hearing about it on the news.
I don't know what my point is but this shit is fucked up man.
I was an engineering major at Brown - graduated about a decade ago. The shooting that happened yesterday happened in the building that was basically my second home in college. I used to sit in the lobby and study with my shoes off at all hours. It’s hitting a lot closer to home this time. Definitely hits very differently than just reading about it.
I went to Virginia Tech and graduated not long before the massacre there. So I know the feeling.
I was at Purdue when my downstairs roommate murdered his fellow TA. I still have nightmares occasionally about getting woken up by the police the morning it happened (I got home at 3am from out of town, didn't have class til 330pm, and it happened at like 10am), including how exactly his body was desecrated after being shot.
Sorrow to see someone else who can relate. I'm a Saugus High alumni. The shooting happened a few yards from where my friends and I used to hang out for lunch. Those memories will forever be tainted by this knowledge. It feels violating. I'm sorry you're going through this. It takes time to process. It's not something that ever goes away.
I watched the documentary The Truth vs Alex Jones, which focused much more on the Sandy Hook families and what happened than I was expecting. The investigator basically describing the last moments of those children combined with the home movies of the kids was absolutely devastating. It's been over a year and I'm still not over it. (Also my kid is that age now and it's difficult to not spiral thinking about it.)
My son was only a year younger than those babies and it hit so close to home. And I was suffering from PPD from my second baby. I had to leave work that day. I’m still not over it.
I remember during history class seeing some photos from what I seem to remember was the Kent State shooting. Not as many deaths as a lot of others, but the image of the one girl screaming while kneeling over one of the victims made me both sad and sick. The fact that this happens pretty much every week, if not more, since the 1970s is a disgusting tragedy.
Anyone who claims to be "pro-life" or screams "think of the children" but refuses to give up their guns or even just accept gun reform policies, to save literally hundreds of kids, teens, and adults every year is a hypocrite. I'm convinced some of them literally do not have any concept of empathy within their bloated, hateful husks of human existence.
We've reached the point where MAGA Christians are talking of "The sin of empathy"
Your point is for sure valid, but I do think it's worth noting that Kent State was pretty different from these school shootings. Kent State was perpetrated by the National Guard because students were protesting the Vietnam War.
"Whats he cryin fer?! Aint like it was one of his kids! What a pussy!!!"
~ Average Republican, Warrior for Christ
The Bible they supposedly read and comprehend and live by says that Jesus wept over the death of Lazarus. Right before raising Lazarus from the dead! If Jesus can empathize with people who are grieving, shouldn’t that mean it’s okay for us mere mortals to do the same?
I really don’t understand these “Warriors for Christ”.
Never heard that but go figure coming from the party that thinks we are crazy for questioning how fast a "bullet grazed ear" can heal on a 79 year old.
Guess we all know their tricks thru the power of projection
I wonder if Erika Kirk soaks her handkerchiefs in onion juice.
Remember when Trump boasted about having the tallest building in New York (lie) after the Twin Towers collapsed?
Wished his haters and losers a happy 9/11 once.
What got me about the suit thing is that every other President in my lifetime wore a tan suit at least once and nobody said a thing.
The only color they had a problem with wasn't that of his clothing.
Jesus it's been so long since we had a president capable of writing a speech. Or reading. Fuck we fell so hard.
Literally, the only evidence that the nasty fuck currently in charge can read is he owned a copy of mein kampf
Owning a book isn’t proof that someone can read. Plenty of people own bibles they’ve never opened.
Makes me miss bush 2 even
I thought i couldn't get rid of him fast enough but then came King Donald around. Oh boy was i wrong.
Right? Like sure, Bush was a fucking idiot... but at least he seemed to care.
Idiot and a ghoul, but he had some semblance of decorum. And wasn’t a flagrant grifter. Like, at least keep that shit on the down low.
The growth in Trump’s personal wealth since the commencement of his second administration outstrips the peak lifetime wealth of all 45 other presidents combined.
A real man of the people.
Watch him cry endlessly about it if he gets impeached again. "It's because everything is rigged against me!!!" Must be tough being a criminal and completely stupid.
Wasn’t a rapist either (as far as I know)
I disagreed with GW Bush on nearly everything, but I truly believe that he thought he was doing what was best for the country.
Donnie doesn't care. He's in it for himself.
Honestly, most Republicans until the last decade or so. Like I *definitely* did not want Mitt Romney to become president...but, had he, I wasn't worried that he was going to literally destroy the country.
I remember thinking he would bring Mormonism into the White House in a big way and that scared me. But now, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, on that idea nothing’s worse than project 2025.
Remember when the big "presidential gaffe" was "I've got binders full of women"?
Remember when Quayle was ridiculed for not being able to spell potato?
Now a potatoe is president.
Remember when a President didn’t need to tell you they had the best words?
Remember when a president didn't seem to be discovering words such as "groceries" and "affordability" for the very first time?
Remember when presidents were expected to be not illiterate?
Remember when a president didn’t rape kids?
Remember when a president could read and write? Coherent sentences?
Even Bush Jr was far more articulate that the current guy and he was ridiculed for his speech.
If you miss this era at all, check out the book Grace by Cody Keenan. He was one of Obama's speechwriters. The book covers a particularly wild 10 day span of the Obama presidency and is VERY good. Bonus points for the author doing a great job of narrating the audiobook.
The worst downgrade in presidential history from Obama to the ochre sack of shit we are saddled with today. He wasn’t perfect by any means but he was tactful, intelligent, levelheaded and always gave off a feeling that he actually gave a shit about this country and its citizens unlike a certain moldy orangutan I could mention.
The shitsack's supporters will rarely admit it straight up, but they'll say it's an upgrade just because of skin color
Trump would turn that event into something about himself, blame the left, and then go golfing (which he’s terrible at).
I think that’s exactly what he did as a normal citizen at the time, so his behavior is unchanged.
its always the dumbest fucking people you know who are maga
It really is the worst people. Deplorable, even, some might say.
Hillary was so wrong to say that.
She underestimated when she said it was only half of them.
He'd call the victims "weak" and "losers" just like captured veterans.
Cheats. Cheats at.
Being bad at something implies there's effort. Cheating takes zero effort.
His speechwriter wrote a book (Grace by Cody Keenan-highly recommend) about how he had to help him write speeches both for the Charleston church shooting and two pretty momentous SCOTUS decisions and he talks about how much went into just his tweets. Like multiple people approved them and considered how they should and would sound. And yet...here we are.
I really enjoyed that book
The Trump version would be a picture of him trying to forcefully kiss a little girl that escaped the shooting before he went on stage to talk about himself and probably how magnets don't work in water.
And telling the parents who just lost their kids “if we have stricter gun control laws you’re not going to have a country anymore” or some insensitive shit, while also finding a way to work in blaming Democrats for it, of course.
Or "if I was president 4 years ago already this would have never happen"
I miss having a literate president.
Hell, I would even acccept an illiterate president if they:
1) knew how to lead the people 2) weren't a draft-dodging traitor 3) hadn't trafficked and raped kids
Dodging the Vietnam draft was one of the only good things Trump has done in his entire life
No, he could’ve died
Which would have no doubt been from "friendly fire."
Edit: thanks for the award, Reddit friend!
I have a lot of gripes about the US, but god do I miss this level of common decency and leadership. The current admin has to be the most heartless, ruthless and incompentant I have witnessed in my entire life.
In a much better world an Obama presidency would be average. Sadly it's the exceptional for us.
If this didn't reform gun violence in this country, then nothing will.
We haven't tried heavily arming and training women and minorities, yet.
When they get excited about guns, then we'll see that needle move with a quickness. Just ask the Black Panthers. They were barking up the right tree.
They are starting to get excited, just look at the inclusive matches Karl Kasasa (sp) is running and who is welcome to attend.
I've got a friend in the US who pretty much exclusively trains minorities and LGBT+ new gun owners, who stands by "gun rights are queer rights".
I remember as a kid in Australia I looked up to the US during Obama's administration, the little I did know of such a far away place seemed way more put together than the constant news you'd hear about during Rudd, Gillard and Abbott. Now we really just feel sorry for the US and how childish its all become, and I know a lot of Australians including myself have the moment every month where we wake up, check the headlines, go out to the kitchen and say to your family "so guess what the US is doing now..."
Well, from the US, we wake up every morning too see which country or leader Trump has insulted in the world or what new scam he’s running under the guise of “leadership”. I was relieved when that first term was done. But like jock itch, it’s back again.
Approaching sixty, and as much as I despise some previous presidents, the current administration’s lack of any desire to be the “pastor in chief” or “supportive grandparent” in a moment of national tragedy is starkly in contrast to every other administration I’ve lived through. Since the invention of national broadcast media the president’s ability to get airtime and call people together has made some pretty awful periods of history just a bit less awful.
The biggest example for me in current memory is probably when George W Bush, not known for being a great orator, spoke in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 to call for religious tolerance when we had people on the radio calling for mass reprisals against Muslims, and folks beating up Sikhs because they were too stupid to understand the difference between a Sikh and a Muslim. Despite everything I dislike about Bush/Cheney that was a defining moment where he did what a president is supposed to do
Everything about this is the exact antithesis of the current president. Obama actually cared.
Trump never writes anything, he (obviously) goes off the cuff.
Combined with the Alzheimer's (that he definitely has), and we get his daily word salads.
Hourly, and sometimes minutely. But always bigly, incoherently, bigotedly, hatefully, spitefully, ragefully, and, sadly, non-fatally.
Slide in a few jabs or 20 at Democrats for no reason. He could classify the shooting at Bondi beach as a far left radical attack because someone in his administration happens to have the same name and people would believe him.
Brown University shooting? He'll say he's always been the biggest supporter of the African American community.
Obama used to read around 4 hours a day during his presidency just to be up to date with every briefings, press releases and other documents he needed to actually do the president job....
I don't think Trump has read a briefing note this year lol
I’m not convinced Trump CAN read a briefing note.
And the right wing television had a field day ridiculing him for shedding tears during the speech. The guy gets choked up in the presence of a couple dozen grieving families and that's the part they ran with, it was disgusting among things that are disgusting.
"What a pussy loser, crying over something as minor as senselessly murdered children."
In spite of all the attempts to besmirch Obama (and his wife) his administration had the least amount of scandals and drama, we truly didn't know how good we had it.
Also another thing you can't forget in the past like 10 years (and maybe even longer, don't know the older presidents) that presidents are way too old, like Obama was like 60? and both trump and biden should have long been retired
Obama became president at 47
There was a thing I saw here the other day that was a chart of who the British monarch was when all of the US presidents were born.
Obama is the only one (so far) born during the reign of Elizabeth II. She reigned for more than seventy years. She came to the throne in 1952, and every president since Bush Sr, other than Obama, was born before she came to the throne. And Bush Sr was only two years older than Elizabeth II.
I was born a few months before Clinton was elected in 1992, so every president who has served a full term in my lifetime (other than Obama) was born before Elizabeth II came to the throne.
He gets disgusted by people getting injured and doesn't want to see that. He's spoken about a time someone was bleeding and Trumps concern was for the beautiful white floor, not the guy who hit his head and was bleeding.
Yup. You can argue that he didn't get everything right. But, damn, the man was decent. And appropriate. And very much of the mind that the office of POTUS is so much bigger than the one person who inhabits it.
He once left the White House in the wee hours of the morning to meet a flight carrying 18 fallen soldiers. Quietly stood at attention for 45 minutes along side the honor guard. Would not leave until the bitter end. Also met with the family of each Sandy Hook victim privately.
I have yet to know of a President that was infallible. But I never got the feeling that Obama ruled to serve only himself. And at this point, that’s really all I’m asking for in a president.
Yea, I’m not an Obama fan for a lot of reasons (mainly foreign policy) but he obviously did care deeply about these children, and their parents. His speech was beyond moving, and I wish so much that more action was taken after this. I really thought it would be a turning point… once I realized it wouldn’t, that’s when I knew America would never ever change.
Had this happened today, all the current admin would spew would be about how the shooter was lgbtq or a dem or whatever.
The current president can’t flip a coin let alone gather any empathy.
I’d still say the genuine emotion Obama showed in the immediate aftermath of the Sandy Hook shooting began my shift away the conservative beliefs I was raised on.
I remember reading something by a former conservative who explained what it felt like the first time he actually LISTENED to Barack and Michelle talk about something. Without that veil of hating them hanging over it, and without the need to somehow hear evil in their words. It sounded equally liberating and depressing (because it was the moment he realized how much time he wasted hating them for reasons other people gave him).
Unsurprisingly, that’s why conservative media stopped showing Obama talking pretty quickly in his presidency. Well, they’d show it but he would usually either be muted or they’d talk over him. People gravitated to his words, and it was dangerous for them to have him be anything's other a caricature of a black, liberal elite that they wanted to paint him as.
Can you say more on that?
Sorry this turned into a much longer post than what I initially intended to type up. to;dr Sandy Hook was one of the first really big tragedies that i remember in my life and the fact that the Republican party reacted with anything less than horror and disgust was shocking to me.
I'm not the person you asked but that was about the time I started to really think critically about the right wing party that I had been raised to believe was "correct" (in quotes because neither political party is "correct" IMO).
But I was raised on Fox News and Sean Hannity so a lot of my formative youth was spent thinking that those views were right and the Democrats really didnt care about the law of the land, about the drug/gay/"Islam" problem (depending on the year), and that everything they said was just lip service in the south park PC Principal type of way. Compared that to how the Republicans wanted a strong nation through a strong military, upheld the law, and that they were more focused on a solid economy than the more "soft" points like social issues.
Really, i started distancing myself from Republicans during Obamas first election because even 12 year old me could see that the birth certificate thing was just very thinly veiled racism. But I figured that it was just a weird election and at least Romney was a somewhat competent candidate.
Then Obamas terms continued onwards and I continued to get older, more education, and more politically involved and I started to see that it wasn't just a weird election and that the Republican party really did hold a lot of these racist beliefs and that they would campaign on policies that i was taught about in high school (things like "well if X group becomes citizens then the country is doomed!!!!" which is still a common thought these days). And that the Republican party didn't care about "the law of the land" or "economy stability" or "the needs of the little man" than any other party does.
But then came Sandy Hook. Where 20 children were killed. I know it wasn't the first major shooting but it was the first major shooting in my life and it made a huge impact on me. Now all of a sudden school shootings weren't just something we read about, but not we are doing active shooter drills, and it's something our parents have to worry about, it was children the same age as my younger brother. And this shooting, where 20 children were murdered, had the president crying in front of the nation. It was an incredibly powerful moment for me. And it was mocked by the Republican party. He was called weak, they joked about someone putting onions under the podium, his speech was called a PR stunt. Because he cried over 20 little kids being snuffed out. And then Alex Jones and the like continued to harass the families, vandalize and destroy the graves, and drag this even through the public eye for years and years and years. And then at the same time the Democratic president was there on site, was there consoling the families, was there to talk to the police and the media. At the same time the Democratic party tried to make this a stance, tried to enact better gun control, tried to make schools safer, tried to get the nation to understand that this isn't a thing that happens anywhere else.
There's a lot more about how I shifted my political views, so I just kept this focused on Sandy Hook. But I'm a pretty open book so if you have more questions (and are willing to engage in good faith!) I am more than willing to answer!
You have an open and generous mind, that was really interesting to read.
This image always makes me tear up, because it's so human. At this moment, he isn't the President of the United States of America, he's a father who has just heard that there's been a shooting at a school his daughters could have attended in another life. He's a father preparing to address the parents of children who have just been murdered. Barack Obama represented the best of us.
Crazy how there are all these photos of Obama actually working while Ive never seen a single photo of Trump doing anything meaningful for the country
I remember when we could count on our Presidents to lead.
I remember when our presidents could read.
And they had a little less greed.
And cared about our needs.
This was a man with honest intentions who took his job seriously. Unlike the current President who seems to just work this job to profit from it financially and to boast his ego.
the orange piece of shit literally only ran to stay out of prison. he didn’t want the job, only the privilege and power of the seat
Politics aside, I miss the days when America was run by competent people who weren't just there to see how many public resources they could steal for themselves. We've fallen so far in the last decade it's hard to see how we're gonna get out of it. I really don't know if we will.
This country has always been wacky, but omg did white racists freak out because Obama was elected. Racists are trying to teach us a stupid lesson, and unfortunately, they’re succeeding.
These inbreds actually call him "the great divider". It's so fucking crazy.
To this day, I still see memes posted by Trumpers about how Obama did nothing but divide. They think he was a divider because he had a different skin color. No other reason.
Obama was an authentically good man.
Still is! 😊
When I hear him speak to this day I miss him 😅
Could you EVER imagine trump going through this emotional journey? Could you ever imagine trump writing ANYTHING serious?
Do you think he can operate a clicky pen?
He honestly seems like the type of dude to constantly click it only to not actually have it out and ready when he goes to write
Trump would have made the entire speech about himself somehow.
And ironically also about Obama.
“I am sorry for your losses. Anyways, the libs are behind this.”
"It's a tragedy. Some people are saying it's a Democrat hoax, however. I'm not saying it but some people are. The Democrats already tried to impeach me and that was a hoax. They said "collusion" with Russia but that was a hoax. AOC said I wasn't fit for office, nasty woman she is. Nasty. I've dropped grocery prices, gas, more Americans are getting paid more than they were under the Sleepy Biden administration. I have people coming up to me saying, 'Thank you, Mr. President. My kids love you!' The kids that died today would've loved me too, tragedy..."
On the paper in front of him, would've been a stick figure with boobs
I’m glad we stepped away from the pesky Harvard law school civil rights attorney presidents and got someone who knows how to dye their face and rape children.
This is what a human being looks like. Compassionate and empathetic. Oh, how I miss those 8 years.
I miss the Obama years. The future seemed a lot brighter then.
Sandy Hook, the day America collectively learned absolutely nothing.
Barack’s a boss.
The posture of someone who was devastated and cared.
I remember when our president could write a speech.
Best President America had in the last 30 years
Remember when the president had empathy?
The worst part of that tragedy is that looking back — everyone kind of knew at the time in their guts that this was the true litmus test for change on gun control. The legislation failed thanks to the tea party GOP and tbh what insight into how dark the soul of America really was at the time.
I miss when we actually had adults running the country.
I'm a kindergarten aide and we have a plan if anything goes down. We're not going to be sitting around, we plan to get them out through the windows. Yeah, we have the drills but we aren't going to be fish in a barrel.
For those that don't know, the kids are scared during these drills. We turn off the lights, keep quiet and act like it's just an official quiet time but they're not stupid.
It’s shameful that little children in a so-called first-world country have this experience.
Anyone else kinda view Sandy Hook as their 9/11? Where everything changed in some way or another. For me it just showed that America was already a shit hole. Collectively as a nation we saw a classroom full of dead ELEMENTARY SCHOOL KIDS and did literally fucking nothing. Hell there’s still a significant number of idiots who think it was staged. If that couldn’t drive a nation to action, then literally nothing can and we deserve whatever horrible shit happens to this shit hole.
i miss when the leader of our country was a decent, caring, intelligent man who actually cared about the people of this country. i miss when our president wrote speeches carefully and with measured words instead of it being the ramblings of a dementia ridden rapist and pedophile
The sad reality is that if Sandy Hook happened today, it would be a day's report and the world would forget about it in under 24 hours. Back when Sandy Hook happened, school shootings still weren't as crazy out-of-control even though they existed. Now it's just culture.
Nothing is changing. Children aren’t safe