From yesterday’s The New York Times “11 of the Most Dramatic Moments in a Day of Confrontation Over Guns”:
‘What is your definition of a well-regulated militia?’
At an intense town hall-style meeting Wednesday night, Diane Wolk Rogers, a history teacher at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., confronted a spokeswoman for the National Rifle Association over the Second Amendment. How did allowing the 19-year-old shooter in last week’s massacre to own an assault rifle represent “a well-regulated militia” as is written in the amendment, she asked.
“Using supporting detail,” Ms. Wolk Rogers said to thunderous applause at CNN’s “Stand Up” town hall, “explain to me how an 18-year-old with a military rifle is well regulated.”
The “using supporting detail” is a teacher-basic direction for making a convincing case, whether your goal is a speech or persuasive essay.
And from The Washington Post, the revelation that Trump needs notes to remind him to say “I hear you.” My husband thought I was reading the satirical Borowitz Report.
Trump’s notes captures his empathy deficit better than anything?
By Justice & Drew
February 22, 2018
Analysis This photo of Trump’s notes captures his empathy deficit better than anything
President Trump held a worthwhile listening session Wednesday featuring a range of views on how to combat gun violence in schools. And while Trump’s at-times-meandering comments about arming teachers will certainly raise eyebrows, for the most part he did listen.
Thanks in part, it seems, to a helpful little reminder.
Washington Post photographer Ricky Carioti captured this image of Trump’s notes:
President Trump holds a card with talking points during a listening session with high school students and teachers on gun violence on Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2018. (Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post)
Yep, right there at No. 5 is a talking point about telling those present that he was actually listening to them. After what appear to be four questions he planned to ask those assembled, No. 5 is an apparent reminder for Trump to tell people, “I hear you.”
Even No. 1 is basically a reminder that Trump should empathize. “What would you most want me to know about your experience?” the card reads. So two-fifths of this card is dedicated to making sure the president of the United States assured those assembled that he was interested in what they had to say and their vantage points.
That’s at once pretty striking for a president and not at all striking for Trump. Through tragedy after tragedy, empathy has been the quality clearly missing from Trump’s reactions. He has focused on first-responders rather than victims. He has joked around when he probably should have been somber. He has attacked a political leader who wasn’t appreciative enough. Through it all, it’s been clear that expressing that he feels others’ pain just isn’t his strength.
Which is apparently why he needed a couple little reminders Wednesday.
Update: We now have a view of more of the card, for those interested (via AP’s Carolyn Kaster):
(Carolyn Kaster/AP)
A little sweet.
We often see snow on the peaks of the Coast Range in winter, but this is more than we have seen in over a year. This is Angora Peak, just a little over 2600 feet and about 2 miles back from the shore. It is what I can see from my bedroom window, over the tops of my neighbors’ homes.
BELOW: We rarely see snow on Tillamook Head, about seven miles north of us. In fact, I cannot recall the last time snow dusted trees all the way to the headland. I slipped on the deck but did not fall when I went back out, wearing Gary’s shoes, to take this photo over our neighbor’s hedge. It’s probably hard to see in the photo, but the pale stretches are not bare soil or brush or leafless branches. That is snow and frost on hemlock, spruce, and Douglas fir.
The slopes of Angora were clearcut around the time we moved to the coast in 1979. I recall saying that the good news was it would not be cut again for 30 years. I was off by almost a decade. Our surrounding forests are being logged off. I look forward, in a decade, to these barren slopes showing baby forests again. I will be gone before it is next cut.
IMPERFECT PATIENCE 