Father Of Parkland Shooting Victim Sculpts Haunting Image Of Child Hiding Under Desk
Manuel Oliver created “The Last Lockdown” partially using 3D printing
Artist Manuel Oliver, who lost his 17-year-old son Joaquin during the February shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, has created a striking sculpture depicting a child hiding under a desk to signify when a school is on lockdown.
The statue is one of 10 being shown across the country during voter registration drives, specifically in congressional districts where politicians back the gun lobby. The title of the project is “The Last Lockdown.”
The figures were created using 3D printers, an intentional reference to the debate over guns potentially being 3D printed.
The desks are real school desks. “We want you to feel unsettled,” the project’s co-creator Sean Leonard said.
Oliver and Leonard teamed up with Giffords, the gun reform group founded by former congresswoman Gabby Giffords.
Giffords is a mass shooting victim herself, being left partially paralyzed after a lone gunman opened fire at a meet-and-greet in Tucson, Arizona, in 2011.
Steve Sack is an American cartoonist who won a 2013 Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartooning.
With Chris Foote he draws the cartoon activity panel Doodles and he is editorial cartoonist for the Minneapolis Star Tribune, where he started in 1981.
Stephen William Hawking, CH CBE FRS FRSA, (8 January 1942 – 14 March 2018), was an English theoretical physicist, cosmologist, author and Director of Research at the Centre for Theoretical Cosmology within the University of Cambridge.
His scientific works included a collaboration with Roger Penrose on gravitational singularity theorems in the framework of general relativity and the theoretical prediction that black holes emit radiation, often called Hawking radiation.
Hawking was the first to set out a theory of cosmology explained by a union of the general theory of relativity and quantum mechanics.
He was a vigorous supporter of the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics.
~Wikipedia~
The physicist, who died Wednesday, March 14, 2018, at age 76, wasn’t expected to see his 25th birthday, after being diagnosed with the incurable neurodegenerative condition ALS at age 21.
Though Hawking beat the odds for more than five decades, the scientist told the Guardian in 2011 that death was never far from his mind.
~~GRAPHICS SOURCE~~
Google Images
DISCLAIMER
I do not own these images.
No intention of taking credit.
If anyone knows the owner of any, please advise and it will be corrected immediately.
ALS is a group of rare neurological diseases that mainly involve the nerve cells (neurons) responsible for controlling voluntary muscle movement. Voluntary muscles produce movements like chewing, walking, and talking. The disease is progressive, meaning the symptoms get worse over time.
Currently, there is no cure for ALS and no effective treatment to halt, or reverse, the progression of the disease.
Shooting Survivors Write and Perform Song
Survivors of the Stoneman Douglas High school shooting perform “Shine,” a song the school’s drama club wrote in the wake of the shooting.
The more I find out about these kids, the more impressed I am.
Multiply that by such a number and imagine how many amazing kids are out there in harm’s way.
Never thought of it this way.
The adults have dropped the ball.
It will be up to their generation to get this done correctly.
🎶 You may have brought the dark 🎶
🎶 but together we will shine the light 🎶
Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School students give a moving performance of the song “Shine,” written by survivors Sawyer Garrity and Andrea Peña, at the end of CNN’s town hall.
February 21, 2018
(11:30 PM0
Stoneman Douglas Drama Club performs “Shine” – a song they wrote this week
Tonight’s town hall closed with a moving performance by Stoneman Douglas High School’s Drama Club.
During the performance, the students urged the crowd to reach out to Congress. “Be the voice for those who don’t have one,” a student performer said.
They performed “Shine,” a song they wrote this week to honor their friends following the shooting.
Parkland shooting survivors talk gun control and conspiracies on The Ellen DeGeneres Show
~DAVID CANFIELD~
February 23, 2018
Three survivors of the mass shooting last Wednesday, February 14, at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, joined Ellen DeGeneres on Friday. February 23, to continue spreading their advocacy of stricter gun laws.
DeGeneres was joined by Emma González, Cameron Kasky and Jaclyn Corin, all of whom have made major public appearances over the past week, to discuss the conversation that the Parkland tragedy (wherein 17 people were killed) has sparked and what’s being done to keep it going and to turn it into real policy change. “You all are amazing,” the host said to them at the beginning of the segment.
The students touched on a variety of topics, including their widely-watched CNN Town Hall on Wednesday evening in which, among other highlights, Kasky confronted Senator Marco Rubio and asked him directly whether he’d continue accepting money from the National Rifle Association.
As DeGeneres continued to praise the students’ efforts, González clarified that it was her school that gave her the tools to make sense of and respond to the tragedy.
“We are thankful to have been in a school that educated us almost perfectly to handle this situation,” she said.
Kasky added that he’s felt some guilt for what it took to spur him to activism.
“I wish I had been able to be a part of this before I had to feel it at home,” he said. “I almost feel guilty … It took us feeling that anguish for us to get involved, but we’re here now. But we just have to keep going and realize that we’re here to fight the good fight.”
He later quipped, in regard to the conspiracy theorists accusing students like González and Kasky of being paid actors on behalf of anti-gun efforts, “If you’ve seen me act in school productions, you know I’m not somebody who deserves any money for acting.”
~Stoneman Douglas Activists Discuss the School Shooting with Ellen~
~Published on Feb 23, 2018~
Emma González, Cameron Kasky, and Jaclyn Corin talked with Ellen about their experience during the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, and their activism in the days following the horrific event.
~Parkland Student Activists Talk Gun Control~
~Published on Feb 23, 2018~
Emma González, Cameron Kasky, and Jaclyn Corin, survivors of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, sat down with Ellen to talk about the gun control regulation they’re hoping to bring about with their movement.
~Parkland Shooting Survivors on the ‘March for Our Lives’~
~~Published on Feb 23, 2018~~
Emma González, Cameron Kasky, and Jaclyn Corin survived the recent shooting at their high school in Parkland, Florida, and now they’re organizing the March for Our Lives, an event in which people from all over the country will take to the streets to demand that their lives and safety become a priority.
Jeffrey Scott Buckley (November 17, 1966 – May 29, 1997), raised as Scott Moorhead, was an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. After a decade as a session guitarist in Los Angeles, Buckley amassed a following in the early 1990’s by playing cover songs at venues in Manhattan’s East Village, such as Sin-é, gradually focusing more on his own material.
In 2004, Rolling Stone Magazine listed him at number 39 on their list of greatest singers of all time. In 1997, Buckley moved to Memphis, Tennessee, to resume work on the album, to be titled My Sweetheart the Drunk, recording many four-track demos while also playing weekly solo shows at a local venue.
On May 29, 1997, while awaiting the arrival of his band from New York, he drowned during a spontaneous evening swim, fully clothed, in the Mississippi River when he was caught in the wake of a passing boat; his body was found on June 4.
~Wikipedia~
~~Hallelujah~~
Official Video
~~Published on Oct 25, 2009~~
Jeff Buckley
Well I’ve heard there was a secret chord
That David played and it pleased the Lord
But you don’t really care for music, do you?
Well it goes like this:
The fourth, the fifth, the minor fall and the major lift
The baffled king composing Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Well your faith was strong but you needed proof
You saw her bathing on the roof
Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew ya
She tied you to her kitchen chair
And she broke your throne and she cut your hair
And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah …
~Senate Has Passed the GOP’s Sweeping $1.5 Trillion Tax Reform Plan~
Jubilant Republicans pushed on early Wednesday, December 20, to the verge of the most sweeping rewrite of the nation’s tax laws in more than three decades, a deeply unpopular bill they insist Americans will learn to love when they see their paychecks in the new year.
After midnight, the Senate narrowly passed the legislation on a party-line 51-48 vote.
On Tuesday night, December 19, in the Capitol, any residual semblance of bipartisanship – and you would have been hard-pressed to find one in recent months – wheezed its death rattle. The Republican-controlled Congress passed a largely unpopular tax reform bill along strict party lines in both the House and the Senate; not a single Democrat in either chamber voted “yes.”
I was born in an Island in the Caribbean, an island surrounded by water, big water. My country is, and will always be, Puerto Rico. I was born in 1950.
Puerto Rico became a commonwealth in 1952.
This means that I grew up under the shade and influence of the United States of America.
I went to a private, Catholic school from kindergarten through high school. That’s a total of thirteen years of learning, adapting and embracing the “American way”.
These were my ingrained perceptions.
It was my dream to come to the United States and live the rest of my life here. I was able to live my dream in 1999 when I moved to Florida. That year, my dream come true. As years have gone by, I have matured, aged, (if you will) and I have seen the American nature up close and personal.
I understand that there’s not a thing that is perfect, there’s not a nation that can claim to be the perfect place but the America that I was taught about throughout my formative years was the “best country in the world”. I believed that.
It was ingrained in my mind and my nature … I believed it all hook, line and sinker.
I must confess that I haven’t really been a political person. Politics started to creep a bit into my mind during the Obama presidency. At that time is was barely on the sidelines of my perspective.
It wasn’t until that questionably ‘memorable‘ day when HE descended the escalator and began his tirade about the Mexican people that I started paying close attention.
Much has been said since that moment. Many unsavory comments, actions, statements, bold-faced lies have I seen and heard from the individual who rode down that escalator.
Those sane Americans who have been paying attention, who have a shred of decency, morality, honesty know what I mean.
Today, as I write this, I am very sad to see where the American governance has descended to.
Republicans just declared war on the middle class, looted America wholesale, and pulled off the biggest robber baron heist in modern history.
Let’s call it what it is:
TREASON against their fellow countrymen.
DON’T YOU EVER FORGET THIS!
“Occupy Democrats”
Today, my alliance is to my country, Puerto Rico.
Today the ingrained perceptions of America, which I’ve held for more than 60 years, have been shattered to smithereens by the actions of this ‘so-called president’ and the shameless enabling of the Republican members of Congress.
These enabling members of Congress have gone along with HIM because there are secondary personal gains for them.
THIS IS NOT THE AMERICA I KNEW, THIS IS NOT THE AMERICA I ADMIRED, THIS IS NOT THE AMERICA THAT I WANT TO BE A PART OF.
I have a very dear friend, across the pond, who has been following the Puerto Rico situation with me. He has been a support for me during this trying time.
Here’s another poem that he has written for my country.
John Bob will always have a special place in my heart for as long as I live.
Sad a sight of ragged flag,
And disorder all around.
Help us now
To restore from plight our shatter island home
For storm that came and left a dread and lost beyond
belief,
Cry with us and remember, well that befell us then
For to you, the fate could come again
and help be not at hand
So those that have a small donate to help your fellow man
We are but proud and asking not our way
As author is this piece of rhyme I ask on their behalf
a cent a dime a dollar enough for coffee drink.
Enough to restore a gem in blue yonder sea
to see PUERTO RICO shine as was once before.
A new flag atop of mast but just below,
the tatters of
A flag to remind of hardship past and renewal now at last .
With Dedication to all those that lost, RIP
John Bob
®eliaspescadorphotography
~~GRAPHIC SOURCE~~
Google Images
DISCLAIMER
I do not own these images.
No intention of taking credit.
If anyone knows the owner of any, please advise and it will be corrected immediately.
GREAT MINDS SO CONNECTED
~~February 23, 2018~~ 
Kasky added that he’s felt some guilt for what it took to spur him to activism.
It Is What It Is 