Climate Change

Last week,
I randomly stumbled across a list of products
available in other countries
but illegal in the U.S. because they are too dangerous.

Things like
puffer fish and ackee fruit.

I heard the next product that will be banned
is the plastic straw.

The plastic isn’t biodegradable;
instead of recycling, people often just throw them away.
They end up in landfills and oceans,
and I believe this is important.

The last time I went to a concert,
I couldn’t focus on the music.
I spent the first 45 minutes analyzing all the exits,
scanning the room, trying to see if I could find anybody
who wasn’t happy to be there,
anybody who looked like they might be comfortable
turning a good time into a crime scene,
anybody who wouldn’t mind
transforming an entire room of strangers
into a pop-up cemetery full of people
who just so happen to like the same songs.

A shooter always seems obvious in the aftermath.
After we hear what happened,
after his photo is released.
Devin is 25.
He stopped going to the Waffle House in Nashville
after a man walked in with a semi-automatic rifle.

85
Brittany is 41.
She decided to home-school her daughter
after the shooting at Stoneman Douglas.

Adam is 27.
He stopped going to clubs after Omar Mateen
killed 49 people at Pulse in Orlando
and now I’m wondering,
when can we say
this is also the environment?

In 1988, after 6-thousand people
were injured by lawn darts,
we made them illegal,

but guns have killed 30-thousand people
every year in this country.

Now,
preschools are having Active Shooter Drills.
Now,
more high schools are installing metal detectors.
Now,
we’re talking about giving guns to the teachers
so they can protect the students,

but that’s like burning all the trees in the spring
so the forest fire won’t take them in the summer.
America, this is climate change.