"Change The Ref"

I'm still emotionally reeling.

I hope you got a chance to watch Rachel Maddow on MSNBC last night, June 23. If not, there's probably some way to review back episodes, or just this one. It's about gun violene and the "Lost Class of 2021". 3044 students didn't get to graduate in the US this spring due to gun violence.

The parents of one of them became activists. Their organization is called "Change the Ref", a phrase from their son. When playing basketball he often complained of bad referee decisions, suggesting that they change the referee. They put together a video which carries quite a punch to the gut, particularly as it's interspersed with snippets of 911 calls from students in schools during an active shooting. What we saw ends with hysterical, panicked breathing, silenced by loud rounds of rapid gunfire.

The video was shot in Las Vegas. A couple of NRA bigwigs were invited to speak at the graduation of James Madison Academy, named after the "father of the 2nd ammendment". Each was given an "annual"  award for doing so, and requested to go through a dry run of their speeches ahead of time to test lights, sound and video equipment. 3044 empty white chairs were spread out in rowsacross the field as if waiting for the class to sit in them for the actual event. Their speeches of course were about gun rights, and how the students should, after graduation, follow their dreams and not let others stop them, not knowing the so-called graduates had already been stopped.

In fact, they never knew the significance of this class. They never bothered to look up this school and realize it didn't exist. No questions were asked, just ego and greed, presumably, taking over and taking advantage of spreading their particular "gospel." When the speeches were concluded, they were "regretfully" informed the graduation ceremony had been canceled due to a credible threat of violence. Then the footage of their speeches were edited together with the 911 calls and text of their actual records of stopping sensible gun legislation.

My description of this does not do it justice. I strongly suggest  you search it out, watch the whole video, and prepare to be disturbed in a way the sanitized unending news reports do their best to avoid.