Vice President | Mind the Exit

king protest 1

There is something just wholly wrong and distasteful about bad people trying to justify bad policies using the words of heroes. This is a significant week for many Americans. Monday was Martin Luther King Jr. Day. He was a great man whose contributions to the civil rights movement and social discourse and our societal mindset is…well It’s incalculable. His influence was so powerful, and so inspirational, that generations of young people can tell you the preamble to his most famous speech easier than they can tell you the preamble to the Declaration of Independence. So when Mike Pence when on Face the Nation last Sunday, and used Reverend King’s words to advocate for a border wall…well that left a shameful taste in a lot of people’s mouths. Because building walls and dividing people was not his way. It is the driving strategy of our current administration, but it was a stark betrayal of the philosophy of one of the greatest orators of the last 200 years.

guns not allowed1

So over the weekend, Mike Pence showed up at the NRA convention in Dallas and gave a speech. Now, rather famously, people were not allowed to bring their guns into the speech. Well, no one but the Secret Service. Now, obviously, I think that’s reasonable. It’s a reasonable expectation that people shouldn’t be allowed to bring weapons into a crowded event. BUT I do have to admit, it’s a pretty hypocritical stance for the NRA to take in light of their constant message in the wake of literally every mass shooting, where they say, rather blatantly, that had more people been armed, tragedy would always be averted. One more stab in that respective back was Pence, in his speech, telling the crowd of people that it takes a good guy with a gun to beat a bad guy with a gun. Just twisting the heck out of that knife.