umm speech making umm

I was at an event a few days ago where two desi doctors made speeches. Both of them – well established in their professional lives – were asked to prepare a speech on their area of expertise. They did and they spoke. I swear I wanted to run away from the hall 2 minutes into both of their speeches. Why the heck should there be FILLER WORDS in a prepared speech!?!? Argh! The ‘umms’, the ‘errs’, the ‘aaahs’, the ‘umms’ again … mind gratingly annoying!!

I am super-finicky about grammar and typos when it comes to serious writing and terribly paranoid about filler words in terms of public speaking! I’ve been doing public speaking since I was nine. My grandfather was the main driving force behind my interest. He’d spend time correcting my speech style, helping me with the correct enunciation of words, perfecting my pitch, and basically, hearing me out repeatedly without getting bored. Whilst my grandfather’s expertise was English, my mother was the motivation for me to do Punjabi public speaking. She would write speeches in Punjabi for me to speak at local fests and community events. She’d spend nights researching material for my speeches and editing them. Whilst I enjoyed English-public speaking too, I loved Punjabi public speaking a lot more. It got me more accolades because none of my other friends were as proficient in my mother tongue as I was. It felt really cool to be distinguished ;).

As I grew older and started writing my own material, my interest came back to English writing since writing Punjabi really wasn’t my forte. I do have some Punjabi poems that I wrote back in the day but that’s where my literary skill ended. English continued to be my savior. Public speaking gives me a high that is unparalleled. There isn’t a speech competition or a debate that I haven’t won and the reason for that primarily is that I love public speaking! It is a skill that can be developed but needs a lot of dedication and practice. I am sure that Obama didn’t become that powerful a speaker in a day. It takes years of practice and perseverence to get just that right tone and pitch for every word said. How I’d love to do what he does! But I haven’t really done any public speaking since I got married two years ago which is terrible. I did join Toastmasters recently but haven’t been able to follow up with them regularly either. I guess I really need to get back to doing what I enjoy doing. hmm.

Anyway, given my experience with public speaking, I cannot STAND anyone ‘umming’ and ‘uhhhing’ and ‘erring’ while speaking. I get annoyed even if it is an impromptu speech but when you’re prepared to speak somewhere? Come on!!! The least you can do is prepare yourself that no matter what happens, you would NOT use a filler word! With an impromptu speech, I can understand nervous jitters getting the best of you … but when you know that you are supposed to speak somewhere, you have to be prepared to get that nervousness in control, isn’t it!?

An example of a terrible speech (wait for Priyanka Chopra bit) ….. I heard that her speech was very honest and worth hearing once … but (call me arrogant) I refuse to hear her further!:

Arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

on class divide, criticism ‘n more

I felt that this photo (taken during Ayesha Takia’s wedding reception) says a lot about the class-divide in India that we continue to talk about. Notice the ladies in the top left corner and the young boy in the bottom right and, of course, the unmissable back of a celebrity representing the ‘elite’. Although it is just one of many random pictures taken during a celeb wedding, it does provide a social commentary on class distinction that we rarely see captured in photographs.

This photo reminded me of the Pink Chaddi Campaign and I looked up the PCC blog. They are now attempting to bring people together for ‘peaceful’ rallies to raise a voice against the recent attacks on women in Bangalore for wearing ‘jeans’. Good for them. Better late than never. Two things on their blog captured my eye:

1. First, one of the victims who was attacked in Bangalore writes:

First they started hurling obscenities at me in Kannada and then it became physical. They started touching and pulling at my clothes. One of them tugged so brutally at the shrug I was wearing that he scratched my neck. Their goal — to show the collected crowd the top that I was wearing underneath my shrug.

When the shrug didn’t come off with their tugging, the violence of the tugging increased. In self defence I hit out at an offending hand that was trying to disrobe me. The response, he slapped me hard across my ear. Then they began trying to lift my top up while making references to ‘pink chaddi’ – the only words I could understand of their tirade.

hmm. Need I comment?

2. Second was a lady called Avanthika’s comment on the PCC blog:

(unedited because it shows that there is a class in India different from the perfect-English speaking and writing group that we become accustomed to through our blogs)

Dear Pink Chaddi Campaigners!

I really appreciate your efforts; you peoples by sitting inside those air conditioned cubicles are doing a wonderful job for the normal and ordinary females like us who are verymuch comfortable in living a happy and secure life by following the unwritten yet very clear laws defined by our caring parents and brothers. Pls don’t consider each and every females in this country belongs to your category people who loves do anything if it is believed to be modern or any activity which the westerners are doing in the label of individual freedom. We are extremely happy with the freedom we are enjoying in the society and we never need the freedom beyond that limit so that we can go to pubs during midnights and enjoy the whole night inside having drinks and do all that modern adventurous stuffs with other like minded males/females.
[...]

Anyway the Great Pink Chaddi Campaign is proving to be really effective day after day, the response that the normal people like we are getting in the streets these days proving the effectiveness of your campaign. Now that, people like us are forcibly manhandled in daylight by the pink chaddi fans, their intensions are pretty clear, they just wanted to check whether we are Loose, modern and pub going, by checking the color of our chaddis in public. Now we are not able to wear modern looking attires like jeans or long skirts, because the pink chaddi fans will approach us for a date thinking that we are modern loose pub going open minded girls…

Nonsense got its own limits… So please stop the nonsense in the name of individual freedom, if you people are having any other political/regional agendas, plzz spare us.
If you have anything to do with the BJP or any other rightwing parties, deal with them in straight line, rather than creating such cheap and third rate gimmicks.

Please do not make us more insecure in our own land… It’s a request.

Avanthika

Surely an interesting read and somewhat reiterates a point that I did try making a while back which I see no need of repeating now.

While we’re on the topic of class distinction in India, I came across a comment on Amitabh Bachhan’s blog today that had me snickering. He writes:

And after a days hard work for my daily bread, I delight in the company of loved ones

Daily bread, eh? That doesn’t even qualify as a matter-of-speak for someone as loaded financially well-off as him. He is not justified to be using such phrases even if it is only a cliche. He considers himself a master of words; he must know better than to craft words as such that only make him appear distant from reality (to some while the rest of the fools think of it as ‘humility’ on his part ugh). Or wait, maybe he IS distant from reality! Like most of us sitting in “air conditioned cubicles” (as Avanthika puts) are.

When I told Pati about AB’s comment, he simply said:

“Why do you even read his blog? It’s like knowingly watching a bad film and then complaining about it. I have no sympathies.”

True that.

Maybe escapism is the best route. Don’t bother with anything that you don’t like or approve of. No need to voice criticism for anything that you can stay away from if you don’t like.

Too bad I am not built like that. I tried doing that though … a while back. I had an argument with a good friend who I immensely resepect over something very trivial. I opted to walk out of the discussion mid-way because it was only getting us agitated with each other. Something he said and I’ll never forget was that without discussions, without criticisms, without people voicing their opinions against things that were not right, our civilization wouldn’t have moved forward. We would’ve just stayed stagnant and gradually perished much before our due date. By criticism, I don’t mean creating a hullabaloo against everything and anything you dislike or be cynical at all times. Constructive criticism lies in acknowledging the positives in everything you observe while voicing views that are backed with logic on the negatives as well.

I hope more of us can do that … without the desire of fitting into any group, without the need of having to please anyone, without the want of being liked by many, without the pressure of painting a picture of ourselves as we’d like others to see us …. I hope we can be true to ourselves … our thoughts … our actions … and be able to talk out loud (with logic and diplomacy) of things that we feel are not right and justified.

Human first, Woman later

I’ve spent the last 10 minutes twiddling my thumbs and fingers while staring at the screen wondering whether I should write this post or not. I am both in the mood and not in the mood to write it. In the mood because I have all these thoughts parading in my head. Not in the mood because I have chores to do to be productive with my life. However, I am choosing to write because it’s best that I do chores after clearing my head, rite? Yes, right. I agree; so, you automatically agree. :D

The title of this post is a slogan that I am thinking of submitting to the campaign – AvalentineforIndia – which I am sure everyone in the blogworld is already aware of by now. I do think that it’s a great step forward and if it is carried out as it is being planned and projected, it could be encouragement for many of us to be more proactive. I wish I could be in Delhi and be a part of this movement. Since I cannot be there, I hope my slogan would be. :)

Human First, Woman Later!

Today, when I read the news that NCW rejected Ms. Nirmala Venkatesh’s report on Mangalore pub incident, I revisited her views that she made public. She had said: “The lesson to be learnt for women out of this incident is that we should try and safeguard ourselves.” Uh-huh. I am sure that almost all of us most likely squirmed in our chairs when we heard her say that. Again, the responsibility ends up being on the women to ’safeguard’ themselves. From what and who? From Ram Sena goons? Or from the tight jeans that they wear for there is a risk of jeans devouring them whole? Ridiculous. Warnings were issued by Ram Sena goons that women who wore tight jeans and ‘noodle’ strapped shirts will face action. Better yet, they’ve also issued a warning that if they catch two lovers together on Valentine’s day, they’d forcibly marry them off. Sheer brilliance. Not just that, they’re also against inter-religion et inter-communal relationships. They made their stance on that clear when they kidnapped an MLA’s daughter when she was traveling in a public bus with her college-mate’s brother who happens to be Muslim. Although she was safely released along with her companion, her father reported:

the activists allegedly questioned his daughter for speaking to a Muslim boy. He alleged that his daughter had to “beg” and “touch their feet” to secure her release. She was released only after she promised that she would not commit the “mistake” again.

They threatened to take her life if she made the mistake again, he added.

[...]

The police official said the boy was beaten up before being set free. “He is safe now,” he added.

(Boy, my chances of getting beat up are sky-rocketing high if I lived in Karnataka. One, I wear jeans and ‘noodle straps’ rather comfortably. Two, I am a non-Hindu married to a Hindu. Dang, we’re both screwed.)

Are these the people who Ms. Venkatesh is advising women to safeguard themselves from? Did you say ‘no’? Oh she went and met them in jail and said that they were repenting what they did? Is that right? So she doesn’t blame them at all? She blames the pub instead, you said? Pub’s security was lax, eh? She’s right though. How is it the fault of moral police when there was no security in the pub to stop them from beating defenseless girls? They were charged up with the emotion of saving Indian culture after all. How dare you say that’s not an excuse? Ram Sena did what it did for the betterment of us women. We should be grateful and learn from this incident now to wear clothes that cover us completely and not go to pubs. That’s how we’ll safeguard ourselves from (?!? don’t know what ?!?) and maintain our Indian culture. Jai ho! Nirmala devi is great.

Believe it or not though, she most likely is not the only woman saying that. Most of our mothers would’ve said the same. The girls who got beat at the pub most likely got beat at their homes too by their parents after the incident because it is their fault that they were at a pub. They put themselves in that situation. They should’ve known better. I know that’s how my parents would react. That’s how my mother-in-law would react too, I am certain. Not the beating part but the accusation will be on the girl. That sums up one aspect of our great culture and society, ladies and gentlemen. Men suppress women and women suppress women too.

I was directed to a blog yesterday by Laksh where I read a poem that left me shaken for quite a while. I’ll share it with you. Titled Lullaby to a girl child, it is written by Srividya Srinivasan:

Lullaby to a Girl child

Don’t jump or run
What if you hurt yourself there?

Don’t bawl
Stifle the pain. Let the tears flow artistically down your cheeks.

Please
Don’t walk so tall and confident.

Look down
at the ground as you walk.

Don’t stare back
Instead lower your eyelids, shyly.

Pinch your cheek
Practice your blush for the compliments to come.

Giggle
Never laugh out loud.

Lower
Your voice. It should never be heard

Go deaf
Pretend you haven’t heard all that you do.

Hold your tongue
At any cost, never speak your mind.

Blank your mind
Don’t have any thoughts, opinions or ideas.

Bottle up
Your desires; you are his property and his slave.

Hide
your bosom, don’t jut it out, and don’t sway your hips

Close up
Sit demure. Don’t spread your legs.

Open up.
Be the vamp when he so desires.

Hide
Your intelligence and your rebellion and your revulsion.

Fake.
Your orgasm

Pray.
You get a baby boy the first time.

Sacrifice.
Your very identity to a stereotype

Yes dear, you would be just fine, you would be just fine,
Safe from the taliban, safe from the sena,
safe from the men that would be born
from our very wombs.

(copyright: Srividya Srinivasan. Feb 2009)

How true! How poignant! How weighty!

It’s sad how mothers don’t realize what they are inculcating into their daughters. It’s sad how generational conditioning is shaping the way both men and women think and very rarely does anyone raise questions. The very few times that someone does ask questions, he/she is shushed with justifications as inane as “patriarchal society is our culture; you must respect your roots and culture”. I am serious. I got it yesterday.

A gentleman who went to the same school as I did in India (although he completed his entire education there whilst most of mine was in Canada) emailed me yesterday upon reading my blog that I wrote on my ex-school changing their dress code to salvaar-kameez for girls from skirts that we had 10 years ago. The email-versation went as follows:

He: Are you suggesting that women who wear revealing clothes are more progressive than those in salvaar kameez?

Me: Sir, I never said that.

He: So why do you object to the change of dress code? I am in support of the change. It is our culture for women to be dressed in salvaar-kameez.

Me: There are boys too in the same school. Why are they still wearing the same western clothes? Shouldn’t their dress code also be changed if girls’ dress code is changed for ‘cultural’ reasons?

He: Well …

Me: Yes?

He: Well, it is a patriarchal society. That can’t change. Our culture demands for our society to remain patriarchal. That’s why our culture is so successful. It’s only because we have remained patriarchal.

Me: (using his tone) Are you suggesting that only Indian culture has succeeded and all other cultures where women were given equal treatment as men failed?

He: There’s no use arguing with someone like you. You would never understand and will always continue to disrespect our culture.

Me: If you don’t mind me saying, sir, I think it is you who is disrespecting my culture as I know it with your narrow-mindedness. Thanks for the email-versation. Ta.

And we haven’t email-versed since. :p Obviously, eh?

He is your typical young middle-class Indian male – 29 year old, software engr, settled in California with a doctor wife – with dreams and ambitions restricted to building a nice big house in suburbia and raising a family the ‘patriarchal’ err ‘cultural’ way. Good for him as long as he doesn’t impose it on me.

It’s this patriarchal attitude that’s been transferred to us from generation to generation and we are continuing to pass it on. Husband was telling me of a show that he watched on Discovery about tribals living in Amazon. In those tribals, the patriarchal model is also evident. Women complain that men don’t let them make any decisions and they feel suppressed. So, it’s human nature to suppress anyone who’s weaker and different. But, as a civilization, have we not got past that? Have we not realized and accepted that we should not discriminate against anyone based on external appearance, mental competence or physical strength? Then why are we still proudly stating that we are a patriarchal society when clearly it is a society that exploits and suppresses women only because they are weak in physical strength? How is patriarchy any different than racism? I am only throwing thoughts out. Chew on them. Talk to yourself. Talk to others. Question patriarchy. If racism is such a touchy issue, why isn’t patriarchy or matriarchy for that reason? Why can’t there be an equal-archy? A human-archy?

Also, another thing I wanted to mention: why do women fear the word ‘feminist’? I know many men who proudly flaunt themeselves as feminists but there are very few women who are able to say with confidence that they are feminists. Feminism really has earned itself a bad rep owing to what (again) the patriarchal society tells us. There was a local Women’s group in India in the community we lived in. They would address issues like domestic abuse among many others. That group only lasted a few weeks because people (read influential men) got it shut down. I was told by my father that all these women who do these things are equivalent to whores. They should know better and manage their own houses. It was not just my father who felt that way but the most of the community did. Women of organizations that work for women causes have no respect of majority in non-metropolitan India anyway. “All women who were loose in characters join these organizations to cover their bad ways” is what I used to be told growing up. I am sure that I believed that to be true at some point too. If I had continued to live in India and had I got an invitation to join one of the women organizations, I would’ve never done it. I would’ve much rather kept my house than voice any opinions because that’s not what good girls do, you see. That’s how badly brainwashed I was.

That’s not to say that there are no corrupt characters in those organizations. I’m sure there’s plenty who are only doing the ‘work’ to fleece their own kind but the generalization that’s given to them is exaggerated because of the patriarchy. Men are still in charge … and women let them. Similarly, feminism has been made synonymous with armpt-hair growing, bra burning, head shaven lesbians which is so not the truth in its entirety either. Every movement has its extreme elements but feminism as a definition is merely seeking equality of male and female gender. It’s a branch of liberalism. If you consider yourself a liberal, you are a feminist. No questions.

If you are a liberal, you are a feminist, you are a humanist … you are someone who believes that:

Human first, Woman later!

Are you with me?

Mumbai attacks

Everyone in the blog world is writing about it … I’ve been watching it unfold on TV all day … it made it impossible for us (me and Pati) to cook dinner tonight … we settled with rice and yogurt … we are still awake at 1:20 AM … still glued to TV … still in shock of what happened in the past 24 hours … still finding it hard to digest.

There are still many unknowns:

1. Who did it?

2. How many of them were there?

3. Why did they do it?

4. How many innocent lives were taken?

5. How many are lying injured in pain in various hospitals around the city?

Speculations, however,:

The terrorists are looking to destabilize India and its economy and, in turn, global economy. They are looking to scare foreign investment and tourists. There are two ways to hurt people and win over them with force:

- take away their financial supremacy

- make them afraid for their lives/survival

Terrorists are working to achieve both. Sadly, they have one advantage over the world that they’re targeting: they are brainwashed into not fearing death and are encouraged to die for their beliefs, which is a strategy tough to beat. How can you kill someone who wants to be killed? That further adds to the logic that ‘War’ on Terrorism really is not the answer. War is violence and Terrorism is violence too. How are the two different? They only differ in which side of the firing line you view either of them from.

Hopes are that leaders like Obama would lead the world into some creative solution to the mess that we are in and carnage like that we witnessed on the deadly evening of November 26, 2008 in Mumbai won’t happen again. Until then, prayers are with those who lost loved ones and those who are in hospitals getting treated from the injuries. Also, due respect to all the brave police officers who lost their lives fighting terror as well.

… … …

Tag x 5

I have five tags to do, can you believe that?

Thanks Inexplicably, Nita, Nimmy, Imp’s Mom and D. They are on the blogging agenda for tomorrow. For now, I’d leave you with a little nugget that might come in handy sometime in the future. Pati, who is tired of me finishing any ice cream that he buys before he gets a chance to even taste it, bought a flavor this time that he was sure that I wouldn’t like. He was right. I didn’t like it at all. It sat in the fridge all day today untouched. So, after dinner, he brought out the tub and scooped a spoon out to relish it. He offered some to me and I politely denied by telling him that it had a horrible after-taste. He laughed silently feeling good that his agenda had worked. Too bad for him that it was me who had the last laugh anyway because, a few minutes later, he looked at me with a pair of puppy-faced guilt ridden eyes and almost whispered as if not wanting to be heard out loud, “you’re right, it does have a bad aftertaste.”

LOL so words of wisdom for the day = don’t wish bad upon others if you don’t want it to be done to you! :D

Also, I joined a local Toastmasters club here and today was the first meeting. One of the sessions in the meeting required all members to speak for 2-3 minutes each in response to questions asked by the appointed toastmaster for the evening. Later on, all speakers were evaluated and judged for their speech eloquence et al by other members. Guess whaa? I won the ‘Best Speaker’ award for today ‘unanimously’. *takes a bow* thank you thank you! :))

Awrite, I to sleep now. :)

On Humanity et Good ol’ days

Since the last time we talked of Delhi blasts …

- another blast in Mehrauli flower market of Delhi (on September 27th afternoon) where the death toll has reportedly reached 10 with more than 30 wounded

- more blasts today in Gujarat and Maharashtra killing atleast 5 and leaving over 80 injured

I was in two minds today to write about this again after having discussed the same topic only a few days ago; the sense of apathy that we begin to feel after being repeatedly exposed to violence and terror. Something that shook me out of my unfeeling state was news of a 5 year young girl, Sneha, being the youngest victim of the recentmost Delhi blast of Mehrauli. It really shakes you up to the core to think of the heartlessness of people who are hurting innocent little children. What harm did this little girl do to anyone to be suffering as she is now? She has to undergo surgery now but we may never find out what would happen to her. What of the young 13 year old boy who picked up the packet that exploded to return it to the packet’s owners who drove away on a motorcycle? How did he wrong anyone?

These victims are real people. Why doesn’t media talk more of them? Why doesn’t it talk about their lives, their families and make them real to the audience? 100 dead, 20 dead, 30 dead … it has just become an insensitive logistic game. Who were the 100 who died? What were their names? What made them laugh? What made them cry? Who did they love the most? What of those who loved them? These people are real and not just part of some morbid list! As real as me, you and everyone we see around …  I am sorry, they were real. They no longer exist. For no fault of theirs. Their families and loved ones suffer for decisions made by those in political offices and positions of power. My silent prayers.

Whenever anything frightening like the aforementioned bomb blasts happens, most of us react with the overly cliched good ol’ days. No one cares about anyone else anymore as they used to back in good ol’ days, we think. Humanity is coming to an end as we see it. Just a few weeks ago, I was at that point too wondering whether it is a good idea to even bring children into this world or not. I sincerely believed that the world is spiralling downwards out of control anyway and it’d be ethically wrong on a parent’s part to introduce their children to a world that’s already a failed system and make them suffer the consequences. That’s what I thought but, now, more I think about it, more I realize that humanity never really died. It is still very much alive. People still care about each other as much as they did a century ago. The ‘good old days’ syndrome is a part of  every generation: present and those begone. We cling on to positive memories from our past for our survival sake while consciously hushing the negatives and, hence, the good ol’ days.

Humanity is still the same as it was in the good ol’ days. It always has been. Decades and centuries ago too. There have always been bad elements in it and there has been plenty good in it too. While there were unfortunate events like wars, slavery, imperialism, racism etc., there were also developments in science, bonding of human relationships, pursuit and experiences of love et al. It’s the positive in humanity that consistently works to outweigh the negative. It always has worked to do that and it is continuing to do the same.

Ironically, it’s only in moments of great distress like the bomb blasts in Mehrauli when humanity comes forth full force to combat the negativity. While we shake our heads (in disbelief) at the ruthlessness of those who injured Sneha, we must also remember the stranger who took her to a nearby hospital.

China in news again

This time for the tainted infant formula that’s making babies sick in the country and has killed 3 babies as of now. The makers of the formula added a chemical – melamine – to the formula to cut costs apparently:

One of the two people reported arrested was identified Tuesday as a 40-year-old man from Luquan. Local police said that in November 2007, the man, working with his wife and son, bought about 450 pounds of melamine and mixed it with fresh milk purchased from individual cow owners, presumably adding water as well. He resold the milk to Sanlu Group, which used it to produce powdered formula.

And the result:

Third baby dies in China milk crisis. The number of infants sickened after ingesting the tainted powdered milk was five times more than what the government reported Monday. The new figures showed that 1,327 babies remained hospitalized, with 158 suffering from acute kidney failure, China’s health minister, Chen Zhu, said at a news conference today in Beijing.

You would’ve thought that they might’ve learned their lesson four years ago when:

at least 13 babies died and dozens of others suffered serious malnutrition after they drank fake powdered milk in Anhui, a poor province in eastern China.

With incomes rising, China’s infant formula business has boomed into a multibillion-dollar industry and lives don’t really matter, do they?

Some information on Melamine (courtesy wisegeek.com), the chemical the greedy b#$#$rds (excuse my language) added to the milk formula:

• Melamine is an organic compound that is often combined with formaldehyde to produce melamine resin, a synthetic polymer which is fire resistant and heat tolerant.
• Melamine can be made into a foam product. Melamine foam is marketed under a variety of commercial names including Magic Eraser, a cleaning tool well known for removing scuffs and dirt from a wide range of surfaces. (extra info: Magic Eraser is also touted as carcinogenic)
• Melamine also plays a role in a wide range of flame resistant materials. These include textiles used in upholstery and the uniforms worn by firemen.
• Melamine is also used in the manufacture of some filters. Melamine filters are capable of handling a high capacity and can be used in hot environments due to the heat resistance of melamine. Melamine filters are also extremely efficient.
• (Renal failure seen in the Chinese babies) could be explained by the ammonia that may result from the digestion of the melamine.

Melamine was a center of debate in early 2007 in regards to its presence in pet-foods that led to renal failure in pets.

“Without enough regulation in the industry, many companies are engaged in malicious competition over price and try everything to lower costs,” said Luo of China Agricultural University.

“Last year’s pet food issue should have been a warning bell,” he added. The quality agency “should have put more emphasis on this issue because if melamine was added to animal feed, any industry that uses protein level as a standard test could have similar problems. But they didn’t inspect this area thoroughly.”

Another school shooting …

This time in Toronto, Canada:

A 16-year-old boy was critically injured during a shooting outside an east-end Toronto high school Tuesday, prompting a tense 2 1/2-hour lockdown that left parents anxiously waiting for confirmation that their children were safe.

Witnesses said they saw more than a dozen young people behind the Bendale Business and Technical Institute when shots rang out, just before noon. The lone victim fell to the ground and the others scattered, with some students rushing to the school for safety and four young men, including the suspect, fleeing.

I really don’t know what to say. Sadly, some Americans are still willing to elect an NRA lifetime member as their Vice President.