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Parades and Candidates

 


Celebratory parades are such an all- American experience, don’t you think? Here’s the story of one from 2022.

Bad Timing, Village Green/Town² 2022


On the Fourth of July parade-goers in Highland Park, Illinois were mowed down by gunfire from a lone gunman with far too much firepower. 

Highland Park shooting: 6* dead at parade, suspect in custody, By Jake Sheridan, Katherine Rosenberg-Douglas, Gregory Pratt, Rosemary Sobol, Jeremy Gorner, Megan Crepeau, Annie Sweeney, Kinsey Crowley, Angie Leventis Lourgos and Gavin Good, Baltimore Sun

On the fifth of July Maryland Governor Larry Hogan directed the state police make it easier to carry a concealed weapon.

Maryland Gov. Hogan calls on state police to suspend ‘good and substantial reason’ standard for carrying a concealed gun, Hannah Gaskill, Baltimore Sun

Mr. Hogan’s timing is appallingly bad.

Perhaps he and his team had it all teed up - - ready to go right after the holiday weekend - - and didn’t give it much thought. Yesterday, in the midst of story after heartrending story about the Highland Park massacre, Hogan’s announcement hit social media like a prescheduled commercial tweet that has no consciousness of its ignorant arrival on the scene. 

As pitiful as as an advert to buy more hot dogs in the middle of a food poisoning crisis or revelations of mass starvation, Hogan’s decree showed up with absolutely no acknowledgement of its ramifications to Marylanders reeling from continued gun violence throughout the country. 

This is no time to make it easier to get guns or carry guns. Any kind of guns. And don’t tell me we need more “good guys with guns” because actual evidence does not bear that out. 



Hogan’s act is meant to signal to other Republicans throughout the nation that he is a Real Republican and should be taken seriously for Big Things like higher office. Like wild animals who mark their territory, Hogan is lifting his leg on the safety of the people of Maryland while hoping that the national Republican Party will pick up his scent.

Perhaps he doesn’t realize that his handing of state affairs for the last eight years has left more than enough evidence for people to recognize him for who he is.

Hogan doesn’t have much time left to use the Governor’s Mansion as a springboard to bigger things. I don’t know how successful he will be. I do know that the action he took yesterday is bad for the people of Maryland and that he doesn’t appear to care.

What a perfectly apt way to describe Hogan’s tenure as Governor.


*Now: 7.


*****


Yesterday’s big story is also about a parade. 


Closer to home: former Governor Larry Hogan is now a candidate to represent Maryland in the U.S. Senate. We can’t do anything about what happened yesterday, but we can choose to vote for candidates will do better on gun issues than Hogan. When it comes to guns, tolerating “same-old, same-old” is merely perpetuating the unending parade of slaughter.

It’s time to put an end to that parade.




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