Micah's Read of the Week, Vol. 96
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The Story Is the Victims
I don’t have any words for what happened in Uvalde. I’ve read a lot. I’m sad. Angry. Really sad. Below are three pieces that really struck me.
Forrest Wilder in Texas Monthly, “It Will Happen Again”: Texas Leaders Have No Plans to Prevent the Next Uvalde:
The most terrifying thing about each mass shooting is this: the knowledge that nothing will change, and the violence will happen again and again and again. Yesterday, El Paso. Today, Uvalde. Tomorrow, maybe your town—or mine.
In the aftermath of the unspeakable violence in Uvalde, I hear lots of heartbroken people saying, “We can’t go on like this.” I empathize with the sentiment, but the phrasing isn’t quite right. What we mean to say is that we shouldn’t go on like this. But, alas, we will, at least for the foreseeable future. We know this, in part, because our elected officials have told us so.
Attorney general Ken Paxton:
Paxton offered the most blunt version in several interviews with right-wing media. School shootings “will happen again, we know it’s going to happen,” the state’s top law enforcement official told Fox News. To Newsmax, he said, “I’d much rather have law-abiding citizens armed and trained so that they can respond when something like this happens, because it’s not going to be the last time.”
Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick:
Patrick has returned over and over to the idea that fewer doors in schools would save lives. “We have to harden these targets so that no one can get in ever except through one entrance,” he told Tucker Carlson on Tuesday.
Even Patrick seems to intuit that his idea is half-hearted. “Maybe that would help,” he told Carlson. “Maybe that would stop someone.” Maybe! Patrick has been the leader of the Texas Senate for more than seven years, plenty of time to implement his school-hardening ideas—installing metal detectors, vehicle barriers, active-shooter alarm systems, armed teachers, etc.—and to see them produce few to no tangible benefits, including in Uvalde.
Governor Greg Abbott:
This time around, with the bodies still cooling, he could barely muster even a whiff of an idea for stopping the carnage during his Wednesday press conference in Uvalde. Instead, the governor recited the tired cliché that big-city gun violence in blue states somehow proves that no action is needed in Texas or the nation as a whole. “I hate to say this, but there are more people shot every weekend in Chicago than there are in schools in Texas,” he said. “And we need to realize that people who think, ‘Well, maybe if we implement tougher gun laws, it’s going to solve it,’ Chicago and L.A. and New York disprove that thesis.”
Also from TM, Christopher Hooks writes, A Year of “Protecting Children” in Texas:
Every detail was familiar. A once-bullied eighteen-year-old, two AR-15s, 22 dead, and 19 injured. The thing that shocked was the pictures of the dead when they lived. They were so little!
At his initial press conference, Governor Greg Abbott wore his traditional white disaster-response shirt and offered details of the massacre as if reading a weather report. At a press conference the next day, where the governor sat alongside Texas senator Ted Cruz and Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, Abbott told Texans that the disaster “could have been worse,” and the primary flash of anger shown by elected officials came when Beto O’Rourke, who appeared in the crowd, tried to talk over them.
Appearing on Newsmax TV the day of the shooting, state attorney general Ken Paxton suggested that more armed guards at schools would help, “because it’s not going to be the last time.” Can you believe that, as a response from one of the most powerful elected officials in the state to a massacre of fourth graders? “It’s not going to be the last time.”
There was essentially no policy contested in the GOP primary that could affect the practical and economic circumstances of all Texans. There was, however, ceaseless argument about the well-being of children, their morals, their internal lives.
The most acute panic was over transgender children. In February, Paxton’s office issued a formal opinion holding that the prescription of puberty blockers to transgender children represented “child abuse.” Shortly after, Abbott tasked the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, an overworked and underfunded agency he had overseen for close to eight years, with investigating the families of transgender children for child abuse.
The more widespread crisis concerned books. The panic was conjured by parents and elected officials in equal measure. The first target was books with “divisive” material about race. Then, elected officials began to panic about “pornography” in schools, a category that mostly included literature featuring queer characters and sexuality. Lawmakers proposed lists of books to be banned. In November, Abbott ordered the Texas Education Agency to investigate cases of “obscene material” in public schools and prosecute those responsible “to the fullest extent of the law,” because, as he wrote, it had to be a top priority to “protect” Texas students.Public school teachers and children’s librarians—two professions that offer a strongly beneficial service to society for little pay—became villains for parents and candidates alike. They were called “groomers” and pedophiles on social media. In a press release, Abbott called for criminal charges to be brought if librarians were found to have put “pornography” in front of children. In Granbury, southwest of Fort Worth, half a year later, one woman lodged a criminal complaint against the librarians of Hood County ISD, prompting a police investigation. At a subsequent school board meeting, she condemned the fact that a committee brought together to review troublesome books had “too many” librarians instead of “people with good moral standards.”
School shootings are a fact. We ask children, on a regular basis, to rehearse being hunted, as a prophylactic against the real chance that they may someday be hunted. It cannot be hard for anyone who participates to imagine how it might feel for their friends to be liquefied. How can anyone be expected to live this way, let alone a fifth grader? We should remember that the seventeen-year-old shooter at Santa Fe High School and the eighteen-year-old shooter in Uvalde were children too, who likely grew up taking part in their own mass shooting drills. We have to help them—we must. But our state has spent the past year talking about library books.
If Texas showed great disrespect to the Uvalde students in life—and indeed it did—then we have also disrespected them in death. McCraw delivered his remarks at the press conference that O’Rourke attended in order to interrupt, and to ask questions. Republicans were quick to decry the gubernatorial candidate’s presence as “political theater.” And of course it was. But the press conference itself was also political theater: a stage play showing top men in cool command of the situation, with a happy moral to share and heroes to elevate. And of course, blameless all. They are always blameless. We are lucky to have such men above us.
Charles Pierce writes in Esquire:
You know what actually is “inappropriate”? Showing up at an elementary school in body armor and toting a weapon of war.
So don’t bring “inappropriate” to me while discussing what O’Rourke did on Wednesday. And, for the love of god, do not listen to that guy who told O’Rourke, “I can’t believe you’re a sick sonuvabitch who would come to a thing like this to make a political issue.” Of course, it’s a political issue. Abbott and Patrick have labored long and hard, and politically, to make Texas as gun-friendly a place as any on earth. Their political success is derived in large part from having done so—and that’s a matter for all Texans to ponder. Nineteen children will not be moving along to middle-school and politics is the only process through which we can achieve the kind of change needed. Politics is the way we act collectively. Politics is how we protect ourselves, even from each other. Politics also is a way that politicians who create a gun-sodden society duck responsibility for what results from those extremely political choices.
New Yorker Cartoon of the Week
Recipe Corner
Summer grilling season starts now. Let’s start with a cocktail.
Golden Brown Sour Cocktail
FOR THE SPICY HONEY SYRUP
1/2 cup hot water
1/4 cup Mike’s Hot Honey
1/4 cup clover honey
FOR THE DRINK
1/2 grapefruit, plus an additional slice for optional garnish
1 lemon, sliced in half, plus an additional slice for optional garnish
Ice (cubes for shaking, one large cube for the drink)
3/4 ounce spicy honey syrup
1 1/2 ounces bourbon
Make the spicy honey syrup: In a heatproof container, stir together the hot water with both types of honey until thoroughly combined and syrupy. Let cool completely, then use right away, or cover and refrigerate until needed.
Make the drink: Put a slice of lemon or grapefruit, a half grapefruit, and two halves of a lemon cut side down on grill grates and grill for 10 minutes, ideally with the grill closed to capture the smoke, until the fruit is softened and charred. (Alternatively, position a rack 4 to 5 inches from your broiler and preheat to 400 degrees. Place the fruit on a rimmed baking sheet and roast for 10 minutes or until softened. Turn on the broiler and roast the citrus for 3 to 4 minutes, or until the cut side begins to caramelize.) Let the fruits cool, about 10 minutes, then juice them into separate containers and refrigerate until ready to make the drink.
Add a large ice cube to a rocks glass. Fill a cocktail shaker with ice cubes, then add 1 ounce of the grilled grapefruit juice, ½ ounce of the grilled lemon juice, the honey syrup and bourbon and shake to dilute and chill, about 20 seconds. Strain into the glass and serve, garnished with a smoked citrus wheel, if using.
Tomato Salad with Steak Tips
Steak for a crowd, served over a fresh tomato salad? Yep. I’ll be serving this one all summer.
1½ pounds sirloin steak tips, trimmed and cut into 3-inch pieces
1 teaspoon table salt, divided
½ teaspoon pepper, divided
¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil, divided, plus extra for serving
1½ pounds mixed ripe tomatoes, cored and sliced ¼ inch thick
1 tablespoon minced shallot
1 teaspoon lemon juice
5 ounces (5 cups) little gem lettuce or mesclun
1 cup torn fresh basil, parsley, and/or oregano
2 ounces feta cheese, crumbled (½ cup)
½ cup Spiced Roasted Chickpeas, or spiced pepitas or sunflower seeds
Pat steak tips dry with paper towels and sprinkle with ½ teaspoon salt and ¼ teaspoon pepper. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in 12-inch nonstick skillet over medium-high heat until just smoking. Add steak tips and cook until well browned all over and meat registers 120 to 125 degrees (for medium-rare), 8 to 10 minutes. Transfer to cutting board, tent with aluminum foil, and let rest for 5 minutes. Slice steak against grain ¼ inch thick.
Arrange tomatoes on large, shallow platter; drizzle with extra oil; and season with salt and pepper to taste. Whisk shallot, lemon juice, remaining 3 tablespoons oil, remaining ½ teaspoon salt, and remaining ¼ teaspoon pepper together in large bowl. Add lettuce and herbs and toss to combine, then arrange over tomatoes on platter. Top with steak, sprinkle with feta and chickpeas, season with salt and pepper to taste, and serve.
Green Tahini Salad
Gotta have a salad to go with all of this summer’s grilled meats. I’ll be serving this on repeat.
FOR THE DRESSING
2 tablespoons well-stirred/creamy tahini
Leaves from 6 to 8 stems fresh flat-leaf parsley
Leaves from 2 stems fresh basil
1 medium clove garlic, smashed
1/2 lemon, juiced
1/2 teaspoon fine salt
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
FOR THE SALAD
2 medium carrots, scrubbed and cut into matchsticks
1 small fennel bulb, trimmed, cored and thinly sliced across (see headnote)
1/2 medium red bell pepper, seeded and cut into thin strips
1 cup seedless green grapes, halved (optional; see headnote)
Salad greens (your choice)
Fine salt
Handful unsalted roasted cashews, for serving
Make the dressing: In a mini food processor, combine the tahini, parsley, basil, garlic, lemon juice and salt. Pulse until the herbs are broken down, then stop to add the oil. Process for a few minutes to form a green, emulsified dressing; you should have about 1/2 cup.
Make the salad: In a large bowl, combine the carrots, fennel, bel pepper and grapes, if using. Add the salad greens and a pinch of salt, and toss to combine. Add half of the dressing and gently toss to coat evenly.
Divide among shallow bowls, drizzle with more of the dressing and scatter the cashews over each portion.
Serve with the remaining dressing (for dipping pita/bread).
Did Micah practice yoga this weekend?
Nope. I did play in the St. Andrew’s Alumni Baseball Game Sunday. I am very sore.
That’s 20 in-person weekend classes in 21 weeks this year.
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96 weeks of 🔥. Lets get that yoga practice goin again though.