The Salient Observer

If you want to make a change, you must have understanding...   emotional arguments never accomplish real change! If the students involved in the Parkland shooting REALLY want to make their lives count, then they need to focus their energy first on understanding, then on action.  I will tell you this, the NRA is scared of kids! The first thing they must recognize is the NRA is a religion.  Once they grasp and accept this, then they can start to develop a strategy.  What they need is to understand all the benchmarks of a religion.  After they unpack this, the lights start to shine. Nothing makes an organization shake in its boots more than knowing how it works!  Students need to watch the Leah Remini series on Scientology!  Sorry any Parkland students involved in Scientology, but time to get out of that cult.  This is exactly what we are dealing with! If I was in leadership with these students, I would get these young minds organized--this is why these movements never amount

It has clearly been seen that in the Parkland shooting tragedy, almost all the warning signs were missed leading to action.  In most cases of tragedy, this always seems to occur! After the fact, there are a lot of WHY questions and then seeking a target to blame.  The Parkland shooting proves to follow this formula exactly.  Missed warning signs are a clear extension leading directly to breaks in the system.  This is why blame always follows.  There has to be a "fall guy" and if we stop there, nothing will ever change.  The "fall guy" is not the main issue for change, unpacking why the warning signs were missed is! There are benchmarks to measure in every organization.  Here are a few... The first reason is FLOW Every organization is in flow and within this flow there is always stress.  Stress can be good and normal.  In a school, there are so many moving parts.  Students and teachers are consumed with their own lives.  They have high levels of stress to

One thing we do not deal with in our political system is the revolving door of new Presidential administrations.  Let's look back to move forward; First off, Columbine was NOT the first mass shooting.  Columbine was the first significant MASS shooting in a new age of the Internet.  Our awareness changed and Michael Moore's documentary preserved this for the next generation. When we look at mass shootings, they all took place during a Presidential administration.  Each President addressed this in a particular way.  Guess what?  When a new President comes into office, a new method to understand and cope takes place.  This is why each time it feels like we are starting over.  There is almost no collected wisdom! What makes matters even more stunning is looking at how many mass shootings have taken place, and few people really are aware of this data.  In an age of information, ready at the click of a button, take a look at this list of mass shootings over the ages and the

President Trump just gave an address on the shooter today and went off.  Agree or disagree with the President, he is correct about this point.  There is no halfway house anymore with someone who is on edge between the police and the act of aggression either toward self or others, sometimes both.  I agree! Unless we are compassionate enough to understand the psychological state of someone in this position we simply do not want to get involved.  Remember the time when there was that ONE house on the block where kids felt safe?  The house where they could go?  We have lost that "house" in our culture. Same in the adult world.  Outside of the Anonymous groups, where can someone get care?  Yet even in those groups, a person hopes there is enough leadership and stability of that group to take some action.  For the most part, you need some stability under you (housing) in order to survive.  If you do not have that, it is extremely difficult to get help. Most people simply c

Jake Tapper is GRILLING Sheriff Scott Israel here! All the talk about the security guard misses the main point.  If this security guard failed in his duties, he is responsible for his actions.  If the training procedures were insufficient, they need to be examined.  End of security guard story. @14:35 Tapper is moving in the exact same direction Dana Loesch moved during the Town Hall meeting.  He mentions the medical personal that wanted to enter the building and Sheriff Israel rightly answers.  If the shooter is still active, medical personal needs to wait before entering the building.  After the Sheriff answers, Tapper brings up the issue again quoting the medical personal.  This is where Tapper is catering to emotions.  He should have said, "Fair enough, it seems the medical personal determined it was safe to enter, that will need to be examined" then move to his next point. Sheriff Israel is making a clear point--despite ALL the evidence about this shooter, i

After a school shooting, the next big issue is TRAUMA! Trauma:    a deeply distressing or disturbing experience We think Columbine was the first cultural benchmark of mass shootings.  It was not.  We have suffered as a culture too many times since Columbine, but read for yourselves how long this history goes back.  Impact of Mass Shootings on Survivors, Families and Communities . The more we look at history, the more we realize how information and wisdom rarely connect.  Wisdom in this sense is an accumulated body of information that is associated to a plan of action and growth.  What's the point of having a cultural awareness that takes us back to the McDonald’s Massacre. In July 1984, a man walked into a McDonald’s restaurant in San Ysidro, California, and began shooting employees and customers, killing 21 and injuring 15 others.   It ain't 1984 anymore! This is where we have a great illusion in our country.  We think because our technology is so sophisticated we

Sheriff Scott Israel got sacked hard by NRA representative Dana Loesch after his plea for more of the very thing his office failed to do, apply the Baker Act on this shooter.  The evidence is overwhelming and yet it is here we witness how biased people are in evaluating facts. It is stunning how biased papers like the NY Daily News is and many others with this story.  Many misrepresent the very facts right before us.  If reporting is done so poorly when we can actually watch the very event being reported, then who ever reports on an event accurately?  This is an issue of integrity! I have read over 100 hundred comments over several news articles on this topic, and most of them are negative towards Ms. Loesch.  What happened before our eyes does not matter.  This is the issue at hand!  Despite overwhelming evidence, it doesn't matter what was said or is true.  This is America's disease, far worse than guns, it is an inability to think honestly! I respect Sheriff Israel&

It will never work!  There, argument and discussion over. Teachers are mostly liberal in public schools.  They hate guns much less want to wear one in the classroom.  Yet the President spoke of this solution with such pride and a sense of brilliance.  His ego overcompensation was in full view on this lecture to his hand selected round table enablers.  Sorry, not a point of pride on my part, but sadly, and typically, in this setting we do not have men of courage to think critically in the face of the "president or CEO." If this talking point becomes part of the newscycle--a panel of teachers debating and military personnel discussing how teachers can wear guns we will have hit a pathetic low! Let me say this, it does on surface make some sense that if we had an armed person on the campus when  a shooter emerges and starts his rampage of spraying bullets, there is a crucial time period here.  The numbers discussed were 3-7 minutes of firing and a police response time

It seems this is the theme of the Parkland shooting, young people, high school students who not only carry themselves better, but can think and act much better than the adults!  It seems there is a natural resource we have taken for granted and ignored for much too long-our young people! The Moment Watching a young Samuel Zeif on CNN with Wolf Blitzer caused the light to come on bright for me.  While speaking to this high school senior, Wolf cut to President Trump speaking (reasoning) with his round table of politicians and senior executives in the White House about resolving school shootings.  Some “salient” observations. The President rambled on about how a shooter doesn’t want to get caught and therefore if we had armed people in the schools this would deter a shooter.  Then Wolf asked Samuel about raising the age of purchasing a long-gun from age 18 to 21.  His response was classic, “That is like thinking kids in high school never drink or have parties…they can get alcoh

Why School Shootings Change Nothing  and a Solution to Create Immediate Change The facts are clear and overwhelming!  America has lost control and our life is unmanageable.   The crisis of violence in America is faced by leaders in the same way a child faces their parent who drinks 18 beers a day.  In the face of drunkenness and chaos, verbal and physical abuse, the parent says, “I have no problem!”   America has the solutions to deal with its problems.  Ask any competent addiction counselor, someone who has heard hundreds of people sharing their stories of addiction, someone who has battled addiction in their own life and is sober for years and you will get the truths we need to provide solutions. The first step in the Anonymous groups is; “We admitted we were powerless over our addiction – that our lives had become unmanageable.” American life has become unmanageable!    How can Senator McConnell after another school shooting say that we need to not pol