The Salient Observer

This isn't 1998 anymore! In 1998, American culture leaned more towards The Andy Griffith Show than The Walking Dead! Since the Obama administration, America has experienced 12 of the 20 greatest mass shootings in US history!  Nine of which took place under President Obama and already, three under President Trump's administration! President Trump is facing a 60 Minutes segment with porn "actress" Stormy Daniels who is threatening to "tell all" about her sexual relations with Donald Trump.  Her story is well known, leading most cable TV news stories daily along with a few other females claiming Donald Trump as private citizen sexually harassed or was involved sexually with these women. Donald Trump, first as man, then as President can simply say, "So what?" President Trump can claim he has not had any inappropriate relations, and unlike President Bill Clinton, he did not shame the White House. He can claim he was a private citizen when t...

"They don't know what it is like to stare  down the barrel of an AR-15...I DO!" The AR-15 is the weapon of choice.  We all know of this weapon but it is words.  Words in a visual age! Watching CNN Saturday, a reporter went to a shooting range with a former military ranking officer.  He was firing an AR-15.  I immediately heard a familiar sound, but not from a movie like Black Hawk Down , it was from watching "Breaking News!" The shooting last year with a gunman hunting Senators, Republican Senators practicing for a softball game.  Thanks to Youtube, a video from a witness uploaded his account of this shooting from his phone.  The gunfire through my computer speakers was intense.  It was clear.  It was the same sound I just heard on CNN this morning. The latest shooting at Parkland then came to mind.  Another video from the classroom.  The first time I played it on Youtube I thought I was going to burst my comput...

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 organize...

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.  ...

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 m...

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 diffic...

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 e...

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 becau...

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 honest...