ENOUGH!

As I sit here watching the latest news conference from the NIU campus (not even a year after a similar incident in Virginia) I am so very sad. And angry. And discouraged. I live in a country that promises the freedom to pursue happiness but the reality is that I live in a nation that allows the bible thumpers and gun nuts to dictate whose freedoms supersede.

Screw the second amendment.

For me, the pursuit of happiness means that I can choose to shop on the south side of Chicago without fear of being shot in a botched robbery. For me, the pursuit of happiness means that there is still such thing as a safe campus. For me, the pursuit of happiness means being safe to dissent as this nation marches further and further away from the ideals laid out by the founding fathers.

ENOUGH! Give me a candidate who will finally enact safe gun laws in this country. Give me a candidate who will protect the rights of all citizens - not just those who shout the loudest. Give me a candidate who champions the plight of a single mother on welfare instead of bowing to big businesses who don't pay taxes, lay off workers and report huge profits. Give me a candidate for whom change is more than rhetoric, more than lip service, more than fire and brimstone. Show me this candidate and I will cry their name from the top of every building in America.

I'm not sure that candidate exists. I hope to God I'm wrong.