I WILL NEVER UNDERSTAND

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I will never understand why the FBI and other intelligence agencies weren't properly prepared for January 6, 2021. It was all over the air waves, the call to rally in D.C., the obvious danger of the situation, the potential for violence. I will never understand why those black chain link fences weren't in place BEFORE the speeches and the call to march on the Capitol Building. I will never understand why it took multiplied hours before the National Guard replaced the Oath Keepers and the other vagabonds who occupied that great building on whose steps I once posed for a senior class photo. I will never understand why the barricades were installed long after people had been killed and the damage had been done.

I will never understand why the first officer to see the gunman at UvaIde failed to take the shot outside the school; which would have PREVENTED the massacre of those inside. I will never understand why the various police and immigration officers at Uvalde stood helpless in the face of a demented young man who ravaged a school killing 19 precious elementary students and 2 teachers. The video is dismally compelling. Men with assault weapons and shields lingering in hallways, advancing and backing up, wandering to and fro, one even taking time to squirt some disinfectant on his hands from a wall dispenser! I will never understand how dozens of police officers stood helpless and hapless as children were making 911 calls, and countless gunshots echoed off walls, and the cries of the little victims could easily be heard by these uniformed men who seemed to have no leader. I will never understand why the lowliest and youngest cop on the beat didn't step up and say, "If you guys insist on being cowards, I'm going in!" I will never understand those 77 (or was it 87) minutes which elapsed, (when it should have happened in the first two minutes) before the classroom was stormed and the killer was finally taken out.

I will never understand.

by William McDonald, PhD