I absolutely despise politics. The vast majority of politicians and potential candidates I see on the ballot make my skin crawl just looking at them. I mean, so many of our elected officials don’t even look human, let alone act human. But, there’s always a lesser of two incredible evils. There’s always a shiner turd. There's always a zombie with more sense and empathy within their withered soul than the other zombie. 

As much as I can’t stand Joe “Earthworm Spine” Biden, he’s still less evil and destructive than Trump. However, I long for the day that we no longer vote based on who we think is the lesser evil. I’m not sure we can ever get there, but it’s better to try our damnedest to elect politicians and vote for policies that will make our country better, than just roll over like a scared dog and accept mass shootings, lack of healthcare, and lack of social programs to help the sick and needy as facts of living. 

We live in the richest, most powerful, most prosperous nation the world has ever seen, for fuck's sake! I do not believe, for even a fraction of a millisecond, that we lack the resources to fix and prevent weekly mass shootings, our worsening homelessness issue, our worsening mental health crisis, or anything like that. We have the power and resources to make this country live up to the name, "The Greatest Country in the Known Universe"!

Of course, things will never be perfect. Even if, by some miracle, we make this country actually look and feel like the most prosperous nation in the world, we'd still have our problems. But I think I should be able to go to the fucking grocery store without plotting out an escape plan in case another psycho with a gun decides to mercilessly end the lives of people just trying to buy a goddamn steak for dinner.

I think my little brother and his friends should’ve been able to enjoy their last day of school, instead of staying at home riddled with anxiety because, just the day before, a cloven-hooved demon with a gun he shouldn’t have been able to legally own, decimated an entire classroom of teachers and fourth-graders for an hour, while police remained outside and arrested parents attempting to rescue their children.

I think I should be able to walk around downtown and not have to spend the majority of it walking by homeless people who clearly need professional help. I can give what little I have to help those in need, but the fast food meals I've given these people don't even begin to solve the issue.  

I think I should be able to go to my college classes without having to seriously think about what I'd do in the event another loony with a gun decides to target my campus that day (because, in this country, that's a very real threat). I should've been able to go through K-12 without ever having to worry about a bad guy with a gun coming in and slaughtering everyone, while the good guys with guns stay outside like cowards. Yet, for every fire drill and tornado warning I've dealt with at school, I've endured at least three actual lockdowns (and even more active shooter drills). It got to the point that I felt completely calm and level-headed during those lockdowns, armed with a fucking chair, but I still go into panic-mode the second I hear the tornado sirens activate. 

There is something extra fucked-up about that: I shouldn't be more afraid of a tornado than an active shooter. In Colorado, tornadoes should be much more likely than mass shootings. But, I know that, given where I live, I am much more likely to get shot by a total wackjob while I'm getting several rotisserie chickens at my local Costco, than get caught up in a tornado on the plains in the springtime.

For the record, I've never been confronted with an active shooter (and I pray to God I never will). But, I have jumped into action to protect my dog from another dog, and I've dealt with nutjobs that couldn't be trusted with a butterknife, and I've heard gunshots ring out in a couple neighborhoods I used to live in. Unlike so many "good guys with guns" who, time and time again, have done nothing but waited outside for the sound of gunfire to stop echoing throughout the school, I've shown actual bravery and action when it was needed the most.

My little old man dog, Hunter, is alive because I wrestled my mom's ex's wolfdog off of him, while she clamped down on my hand thinking it was his neck. When I was volunteering at a horse rescue, and the owner of the rescue was nearly trampled by a terrified, cornered rescue horse, I was the one who used a pitchfork to scare off the horse so the rescue owner had time to get to safety. More humorously, when a seagull at Seaworld attacked my grandma Debbie for her hotdog, ten-year-old me rushed over to the chaos, grabbed the empty hotdog bun, and fastballed it at the bird, all while everyone (including my family) just stared in shocked amazement.

In all three of these scenarios, and plenty more, I have proven to myself and others that I'm 1000 times more badass and brave than the Gravy Seals who enabled the slaughter and mutilation of nineteen fourth-graders, and two young teachers. 

Yet, in the wake of all this carnage and destruction, absolutely fucking nothing will be done to make this country a better place to live. No "good guy with a gun" will run into a school full of children to rescue them from someone who, if we lived in a sane nation, couldn't even legally look at a gun. No politician will risk their power and stocks to make a change that'll save and improve millions of lives. I hope Congress proves me wrong, but it probably fucking won’t!