Nov 15, 2024 3 min read

MISS: As of September, there were 385 mass shootings in the United States this year, which is defined as an incident where four or more people are injured or killed. Students must go through active-shooter drills at the schools they attend, and the names of some of the most horrific mass shootings don’t need much more identification beyond the names of the communities where they took place, such as Uvalde and Newtown. It’s against this grim landscape that individuals and organizations could learn about how to prepare themselves at an “active shooting community educational night” that happened Tuesday at the North Strabane Fire Department. The seminar was put together by the Pennsylvania State Police, and the fact that they did so is commendable. What is unfortunate is educational events like these have to happen in the first place. Elizabeth Davidson, a Washington County sheriff’s deputy, said, “When you signed up to be a teacher, you probably didn’t think you’d have to do this. But you have to be prepared for it, train for it.” And that is a terrible fact of American life.

MISS: Conspiracy theories have long been part of American life and usually infect people on the outer fringes of American culture and politics. Of course, in 2020, a whole menu of conspiracy theories was served up to explain Donald Trump’s loss in that year’s presidential election. Following Kamala Harris’ loss in the election that was just completed, a conspiracy theory is being served up that Trump won fraudulently, Harris is aware of it, and is waiting “quietly in the shadows ready to pounce.” Newsweek reported that a video outlining this conspiracy theory received 285,000 views on TikTok, 60,000 likes and 6,000 comments, most of them positive. Some of the commenters believe Elon Musk and his Starlink internet service were somehow involved. The reality, however, is that Donald Trump lost the 2020 election, fair and square. And he won the 2024 election, fair and square. Everyone, no matter where they land on the political spectrum, needs to deal with these facts, whether they like them or not.

HIT: Patrick Radden Keefe, the best-selling author and staff writer for The New Yorker, discussed his work at Peters Township High School last week in an event sponsored by the township’s library foundation. Keefe’s subject matter has ranged from the late chef Anthony Bourdain, with whom Keefe struck up a friendship, to the “Troubles” that beset Northern Ireland from the 1960s to the 1990s, and the Sackler family, the proprietors of Purdue Pharma, the company that brought OxyContin to the marketplace. One thing that stood out in Keefe’s talk was the overriding ambition he had to write for The New Yorker, probably America’s most prestigious magazine. It started when he was in high school, and Keefe said that one of his teachers was skeptical when he voiced the idea. But he stuck with it, doggedly studying New Yorker articles to examine their style, structure and even how many sources were used. This illustrates how much success depends on not just talent, but putting in the hours and doing the work.