ACCEPTABLE LOSSES REVISITED!

In case you missed it, this first part is a repeat of a blog entry from February 23, 2020, called "Acceptable Losses." 

Original Post 

(Full disclosure: I am a gun owner, and I support the Second Amendment)     

There is an old military saying that states: ‘No plan survives after the first contact with the enemy.’

When the military and other groups consider and develop a plan, there is something built in called ‘Acceptable Losses.’ What that means is if all goes as planned (which it rarely does), it will result in a certain percentage of life or materiel loss that is deemed worth losing (acceptable) to attain the objective of the mission.

Keeping that in mind, while many are calling for tweaking the current laws, doing something, there is an unyielding refusal of others to consider anything to make a positive difference in our gun culture.

Six people dying with vaping is unacceptable (now up to 59), so action is taken.

Thirty-six thousand people killed each year by guns is apparently acceptable. In mass shootings, as shocked as people profess to be, we have become numbed to the regular increase of incidents. To help, they say we should keep sending thoughts and prayers (yawn) but do nothing else.

Sandy Hook (29 killed) should have been when action was taken, but that was apparently acceptable. Las Vegas (58), Pulse (49), Virginia Tech (32), El Paso (22), etc., etc., should also have brought about action, but apparently, some still see those as acceptable losses. Any suggestion of changing any laws result in, ‘They’re coming to take our guns.’ To them, keeping the status quo is worth the piling-up bodies.

Until such killings become unacceptable to all, they will remain acceptable.

Addition and Update

So, here we are in mid-September some seven months after the above was written. 

On February 24th, tRump tweeted: "The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA. We are in contact with everyone and all relevant countries. CDC & World Health have been working hard and very smart. Stock Market starting to look very good to me!"

And then on March 9th, he added: "So last year 37,000 Americans died from the common Flu. It averages between 27,000 and 70,000 per year. Nothing is shut down, life & the economy go on. At this moment there are 546 confirmed cases of CoronaVirus, with 22 deaths. Think about that!"

And today, if he says it, they believe it. September 15th, almost 200,000 U.S. citizens are dead! Bolstered by their Great Leader, probably forty percent of Americans still see that as okay - fully acceptable! They will tell you tRump has done everything perfectly, and the results couldn't be better. To say anything else might reveal some intelligence, which they don't have.

For two months, tRump lied and denied, and here we are, and there is no end in sight.

200,000 dead and climbing.

Acceptable losses.

Sad.

#trumppandemic