Important headlines for March 27th
Bottom Line: These are stories you don't want to miss and my hot takes on them...
Gov. Rick Scott hears from shaken and angry Floridians after Parkland - Miami Herald
Excerpt: “I will not teach in any Florida school where school personnel have guns.”
“Our elementary school still does not have a buzz-in system.”
“Punishing law-abiding gun owners for the acts of criminals is flat-out wrong.”
These are just three of the nearly 1,200 submissions Gov. Rick Scott received via a “public input” page his office set up shortly after the Parkland school shooting. Floridians across the state used the portal to vent their frustrations and lay bare their fears after a mass shooting that rattled the state and nation.
One thing respondents agreed on is that the governor should do something.
Hot Take: First thing's first. The Governor has done something. After a week of feedback the Governor crafted a plan that had overwhelming support across our state and pressed legislators to adopt the reforms. The legislators took about 80% of his plan to heart and passed it along with the more controversial provision allowing for non-classroom school faculty to carry on campus. Despite citing objections, Governor Scott signed a comprehensive reform plan addressing school security, mental health, changes in law enforcement information flow and yes, meaningful gun control, into law. The desire for federal action makes sense as a natural next step but then continued focus within Florida at this point, and specific to the governor, doesn't add up and is likely little more than election year politics as we'll elect a new governor and there's a strong possibility we'll have a Senate show down between Rick Scott and incumbent Bill Nelson.
In South Florida, the controversial school carry measure has universally been rejected by school districts making that a moot point for concerned families who opposed it as it won't be enacted. Unfortunately, yet predictably, many are seeking to continue to politicize the Stoneman Douglas tragedy in our state rather than seeking real additional solutions closer to home. Nikolas Cruz and others like him are threats to society regardless of what laws change in Florida or elsewhere. Now that we have enacted comprehensive reform legislatively in our state we'd be well served by exploring what we can do rather than looking to politicians for a pound of flesh or seeking government to solve problems it really can't.
Many have suggested that thoughts and prayers aren't what we need. I'd be willing to argue the opposite. I believe that actual thoughtfulness and actual prayers are exactly what our society needs more of generally. Guns aren't new, mental health issues aren't new but the prevalence of violent attacks in our society is. Why? I'd argue that a generation of young people raised without a moral campus/value system (in contrast to previous generations) may have an awful lot to do with how we got here. Without a moral compass and a solid sense of right and wrong, we're likely to see worse outcomes in our society.
For a generation we've seen political action of those who've wanted to remove God from the classroom, the pledge, our society generally (despite this country's founding on those principals) succeed in getting what they wanted. Maybe that change, along with the subsequent violence in entertainment along with social media is at the root of these problems. For those who don't want prayers. I'd ask, have you actually spent any time actually praying? We all might benefit if you did.
The Jobs Boom and the Republican Party's Growth Agenda Rep. Erik Paulsen, IBD
Hot Take: Oh yeah, about that... buried under the MSM effort to make Stormy relevant again and to make all Republicans the target of evil carried out by Cruz - is this. Yeah, we still have the best economy in at least 13 years and still by some metrics 32. You know, in case the economy still matters to people and the MSM.
Until tomorrow...