Another teenager is dead in Knoxville, this one killed by police inside Austin East High School after he shot and seriously wounded an officer.  Four other kids who attended that school have been shot and killed this year.  According to brief news reports, there doesn’t seem to be a direct connection to the school itself until this most-recent episode.  Since all of the people involved are juveniles, the information available is limited, so trying to characterize these tragic killings is nothing more than speculation.  Children killing other children.

Austin East is in East Knoxville, which, when I went to UT many, many years ago, was a no-go zone, mostly poor, mostly black, and considered dangerous outside of a few places like the Knoxville Zoo.  It seems little has changed.

The vast, vast majority of the people of East Knoxville are decent, hardworking, law-abiding, God-fearing folk that you’d be proud to have as your neighbor.  But, clearly, something has gone terribly wrong there. They, and the leadership of Knoxville as a whole, have some soul-searching to do.  I don’t pretend to have any answers, because the violent world of East Knoxville is not the world in which I was raised, and the attitudes that lead to these tragedies are alien to me.  It seems there is only one thing we can agree on, and that is that kids and guns make a lethal mixture.  But with that as a starting point, Knoxville is going to have to figure it out, or stand by and watch more children die for no good reason.  So are we all.

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I wonder how many people who voted for Joe Biden because they couldn’t stand Donald Trump are having buyer’s remorse about now?  I wonder how many who voted for Biden because they thought he was a moderate who would keep the looney left under control are wishing they had just stayed home?  My guess is, enough to have re-elected Donald Trump, warts and all.  The really bad news is that President-in-waiting Kamala Harris is a Progressive’s dream and a conservative’s nightmare, not to mention that she was rejected by the primary voters in her own party as not ready for prime time.  If Joe goes, the situation gets worse.

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For all those reluctant to get a Covid 19 vaccination, may I respectfully suggest that the time has come to do the deed?  The political rhetoric surrounding Operation Warp Speed was simply despicable; in a sane world, everyone would have been cheering on the effort rather than fear-mongering because of the man who initiated and led it.  Hundreds of millions of doses later, the vaccines used in the U.S. have been proven to be highly effective, long lasting, and at least as safe, if not safer, than vaccines in general.  There have been numerous reports of unpleasant side effects after the booster shot, but nothing terribly serious.  The anti-vaxxers and paranoid talk of microchips should be dismissed for the lunacy it is.

Having had my shots, I am now mostly-safe from infection, and almost completely safe from a serious case if I am one of the unfortunate 5% or so who get it.  I can’t carry the virus, and I’m grateful that I can’t infect anyone else.  I don’t have to wear the damned mask any more, in spite of Dr. Fauci’s logic-free nonsense.  I can go where I please, and I’m free to live my life with one less fear, one less burden.

For those who haven’t been vaccinated yet, no offense, but I just can’t see an upside.  The risks are minimal, the side effects tolerable, and the freedom it affords exhilarating.  Please, get the shot.

Kenneth D. Gough © 2021