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Tuesday, May 31, 2022

Gov. Abbott Should Immediately Call a Special Legislative Session, but Will He?

Excellent toon imagery. Thanks to my sister-in-law for sending. 


Abbott's expressions of sorrow ring hollow. As President and Jill Biden were praised for their visit to Uvalde, Gov. Greg Abbott was booed by the community in Uvalde at last Sunday's press conference.

While Republican leaders marshal weapons of mass distraction by getting us all to focus on "shiny objects" like opposing transgender kids and Critical Race Theory, they give those of us in policy more work with ever more things to have to focus on instead of what we all should actually be doing like addressing gun policy. Without a doubt, gun policy today IS education policy.

I have been involved in the Texas legislature for at least two decades. Greg Abbott and the Republican leadership know exactly what they're doing. 

It's their playbook. This is intentional. 

EVERY legislative session, without fail, it's predictable.

That is, they mobilize fear by dropping bombs like anti-abortion, anti-CRT legislation, anti-immigration, build the wall, and so on, so that we in the advocacy community are all kept super busy challenging them. Our focus instead should be on all that we need to do in other areas of policy to keep our children, teachers, families, and communities safe and healthy, beginning with what should already have been, the elimination of what are real weapons of war that are mowing down our children, teachers, and communities.

Heck, read the Texas Tribune piece below to learn that in Gov. Abbott's 7.5 years in office, we have had 6 mass shootings. And then he and his party have the gall to scream at Beto O'Rourke for interrupting his SIXTH press conference to express a widely shared view that this was predictable and that not just health, but also gun policy is necessary, beginning with outlawing AR-15 weapons, background checks, red flag laws, and so on.

The responsible thing of any leader at this juncture to do is to call a special legislative session that will address all of the above, as well as building a new school in Uvalde as Robb Elementary will, as it should, get razed to the ground.

Doing what is responsible will actually help Uvalde in its healing. For anyone with a heart, with true compassion, this should be motivation enough.

He must acknowledge that what he does or doesn't do will not only impact Uvalde, but a traumatized nation, as a whole. Kids and teachers everywhere must be feeling a bit afraid of their schools. Such fears threaten to undermine the historic role that schools have played, in the words of John Dewey, as "laboratories for democracy."

Times like these call for a central role of good government and courageous leaders and politicians willing to do all that must be done. Failure to do so disqualifies this governor and his party from continued "leadership."

Prayers are in order, but for Greg Abbott himself. He needs to stop mystifying Texans with his empty platitudes, papering us over with cliché expressions of solace and concern. 

The burden of history and circumstance are upon him and the Republican Party leadership. He and the Lt. Governor must act now, even as we all hold him and them to account.

-Angela Valenzuela


This time, Gov. Greg Abbott has few suggestions on how the state might prevent future mass shootings

After previous mass killings during his more than seven years in office, Abbott has pledged that lawmakers and his administration would search for solutions. He made no substantive suggestions Wednesday.



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