Midnight Meme Of The Day! Texas: A Land Of Self-Induced Nightmares

by Noah

We all know that the state of Texas is in a very ill place. Unfortunately, the state of Texas insists on reminding us of that fact at an ever snowballing rate. Texas is a case study in what happens when voters choose to allow the lunatics to run the asylum. We joke about how so many Texans want to secede from the country and more and more of us non-Texans would gladly show them the door as the years go on, but that would not solve its problems or ours. Too bad, folks. We're stuck with each other.

Horrible things happen in every state but I think nothing has shown us how sick Texas is, at least in recent times, more than the murder of 19 children and their 2 teachers on 5/24. And the cops just stood there. It was horrific as it was that it all happened but the fact that 19 police officers stood by outside the Robb Elementary School and did nothing even while the kids trapped inside were pleading for help via their screams and 911 calls... Well, there really are no words. What punishment can ever fit that crime! And to think that I grew up hearing mythic tales of the bravery of Texas Rangers. Obviously, that was all just Hollywood fiction of course. Hell, we should have known something was radically amiss with the cops in Texas 59 years ago when they invited Jack Ruby into the Dallas police station for a look-see at Lee Harvy Oswald. That's Texas. It's just the way things are in Texas. Forget it, it's Texas?

There are lots of cases of people standing by and not getting involved. Here in New York, we had the infamous case of the rape and murder of Kitty Genovese back in 1964 outside the apartment building where she had lived. It was reported that 38 witnesses heard her pleas for help for a half hour and did nothing. Many years later investigations showed that, in fact, a few of the witnesses had called the police and at least one witness came to Kitty's aid before the police arrived even though it was too late to save Kitty's life. The case was so infamous that it begat "Good Samaritan" Laws, the first 911 code, and the term "Bystander Effect," also sometimes known as "Genovese Effect" which psychological studies say is the idea that the more witnesses there are to an ongoing crime, the less chance of at least one of the witnesses intervening.

The big difference in what happened in the case of Kitty Genovese in New York and the case of the 19 children and their teachers in Uvalde is that the bystanders were cops. They were the supposed "thin blue line" between safety and danger. Most of Kitty's neighbors certainly lacked the righteous attitude, training, and equipement to intervene, and, aside from a moral obligation, may have seen it as not their job to intervene. To say we at the least have the right to expect much, much more of our police is an example of tremendous understatement. These cop clowns in Texas were trained and had the equipment. On top of that, when they were called into action, they attacked parents who had rushed to the scene as any good parent would have. One mother even stormed into the school and got her kids out by herself. She was unarmed and pulled it off, lucky perhaps, but at least she did something!

Were the cops feeling they were outgunned? Perhaps, but they outnumbered the killer 19 to 1 and it was their job to bring him down. They had one thing to do. It wasn't until some federal border patrol officers showed up that that happened. Yeah, and Texans will be the first to tell you they don't want any federal assistance of any kind. That's socialism, or something!

Maybe those who joined the police force in the Uvalde area thought, "Hey, it's a good job, good pay, and all I'll ever need to do is write some traffic tickets and occasionally take some cash to overlook some infractions." In that case, they made a tragic career choice that has affected a whole town, and more. It's like a fireman thinking he'll never be called upon to race into a burning building to save a life. On my street in New York, I once saw a fireman go into a building to save a neighbor's bird in its cage. I just can't see that happening in Texas now. I also remember 9/11, when we lost so many firemen and police who raced from all over the region to the World Trade Center. They never thought twice about climbing up in the towers as high as they could, lugging air canisters, axes, and hoses in hopes of saving people. They did so knowing their radios wouldn't work because an asshole failure who called himself "America's Mayor" refused to give the OK for better ones.

Texas, though, something is really wrong there. It's not just the legalized bounty hunting, the inability to keep the lights on and the phony cops. It's the remarkably evil governor and the deathcult legislature that willfully enabled last week's tragedy at best and encouraged it at worst. Texans voted for them. They also voted for Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, "Ted" Cruz, John Cornyn, a slew of fellow wackjob congresscretins like former Trump White House quack doctor Ronny Jackson, Pete Sessions, Louie Gohmert and even a conservative DNC supported pathological lying anti-choice democrat named Henry Cuellar. That's what they want representing them!

Texas needs a drastic attitude adjustment from the Republican governance at the top on down and from the voters who choose them on up. It's a problem everywhere but, like Texans love to say, everything's bigger in Texas. No matter what party, you get what you vote for. We all need an attitude adjustment. Texas is horrendous but it's also a symptom of a lot that's wrong with the whole country. There's not much to stop the kind of self-induced nightmares that Texans are experiencing from happening at a faster and faster rate anywhere. You get the mediocrity or worse that you accept. Check the water.