Sherman R. Frederick/Properly Subversive

Another school shooting. This time at a high school in Barrow County, Georgia. Four slain, 9 injured.

Sherman Frederick

The suspect left his classroom and returned with a gun. He was locked out of his classroom, so he turned the gun on people in the hallway. Two school resource officers within minutes squared up on the kid shooter … and took him into custody.

Look, no one has The answer to these events.

In this case, a 14-year-old — 14 freakin’ years old! — has been apprehended for the violence. He used an “assault” rifle that his father bought him. His father has been arrested for doing so. The kid also had a history of making threats online. A year ago he was interviewed by police about them, but released.

It wasn’t the rifle that’s to blame. It’s not the Internet, either. We will once again examine the details ad infinitum in hopes of discovering a magic, as yet undiscovered, solution for future violence. We won’t find it.

It’s been a week since the shooting. For now, for me, I’m thankful for the school’s resource officers. If it were not for them rushing to the scene (not away from it), this would have been much, much worse.

GUNS/SCHOOLS

In case you missed it, nine guns and seven knives were confiscated from students in August (the first month of school) in the Clark County School District.

You can bet this is not just a Las Vegas problem More fodder for supporting cops in schools.

THAT ACCENT

Everything you need to know about the Kamala Harris campaign resides in that fake accent she puts on for certain audiences. You know the one. She performed it in Atlanta last month. And she did it again in Detroit on Labor Day.

Social media wags are giving her the business for it (as she deserves), posting side-by-side videos of her standard stump speech — one given in Pittsburgh and one given in Detroit. Same speech nearly word for word, but one is delivered in what is presumed to be her normal pattern of speech and the other in that cringe-worthy accent.

The American news media hasn’t quite decided what to call the accent. Some report it as a “southern” accent (which I would think would be an affront to all self-respecting Southerners). Some call it a “drawl.” The more touchy-feely reporters, comically enough, call it a “new” accent.

They try hard not to call it what it is — her version of an urban Black dialect. The Atlanta and Detroit crowds were predominantly an urban Black crowd. And her speech pattern most definitely imitated the stereotype of a Black preacher whipping up a congregation to feel the Holy Spirit. But, whether you say it is a “Black” accent or a “southern “accent or a “new” accent, I think everyone would agree that copping an accent to fit in is straight-up patronizing

What would you say to a friend from Reno who traveled to Dublin and when speaking to locals feigned a thick Irish accent? Or went to Mexico City and suddenly started rolling his r’s?

I think you’d say “stop it.”

Thankfully, we don’t have to say “stop it” to Mrs. Harris because there is no Nevada dialect, so when the Vice President visits the Silver State, her speech pattern is the same in both Northern Nevada and Southern Nevada.

At least we got that going for us.

(Thanks for reading. Laugh a little, avoid soreheads and always question authority. You can read all Properly Subversive columns at shermanfrederick.substack.com.)

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