Republican Florida representative Tom Rooney not seeking re-election in 2018

[yllus]

Rooney put out a really pathetic press release a few days ago that mentioned how the state failed the children murdered in Parkland, Florida and touted a whole range of things that could be done to improve classroom safety - but you might notice that the word 'gun' is nowhere to be found in the document. He does helpfully advocate putting armed officers in "every corner" of schools though. I think we call buildings that highly patrolled 'jails', Mr. Representative. 🙄

Today he issued a second press release stating that he will not stand for re-election the House Of Representatives.

Patch - Florida Rep. Tom Rooney Says He Will Not Seek Re-election

OKEECHOBEE, FL — After a decade in Congress, U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney, a Republican who represents Florida's 17th congressional district in south-central Florida, will not seek re-election this year. He told Politico in a statement: It's time to "'hang em up' as my old football coach used to say."

Rooney's district includes a large area spanning from eastern Tampa Bay to the western shores of Lake Okeechobee. He said he looks forward to serving Florida in the future, but in a different capacity.

An estimated 768,000 residents live in Rooney's district.

Rooney is a senior member of the House Appropriations Committee. His decision comes two days after he issued a statement calling for major increases in federal money for enhanced school security measures and youth mental health programs in upcoming funding bills. That legislation was spurred by the Parkland, Florida high school shooting that left 17 students and teachers dead and dozens injured last week.

In his statement, Rooney said it had become clear to him that lawmakers had "a lot of work to do."

"As lawmakers, people expect us to act to stop this needless bloodshed and violence. Congress can – and should – immediately work in a bipartisan way to provide ample federal resources to help make sure that no one wishing to commit these mass atrocities can even step foot inside a school."

He said Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School had a school resource officer on campus but that it is "obvious" more were needed.

"That's why I am requesting increased federal funding for the federal COPS Hiring Program to make sure state and local law enforcement entities can put school resource officers in every corner of every school," he said.​

 

[Moonbeam]

Humanity is asleep floundering around in the dark, unable to look within and see their is only one universal sickness that is the cause of all evil, the simple fact that by having been put down as children we grew up hating ourselves. Until one can see that about oneself, no real progress will ever be made because that very self hate will project that the cause of evil is out there, the problem of somebody else, the criminal, the member of this or that race, party, church, tribe, whatever it is that we were told we were as children that was worthy of being hated. The problem isn't really that the evil is out there in the other, that he is sick, evil, mentally ill etc. but that we will not face the fact that everything that is wrong with the world is within us, the fact that we will not feel how bad we were made to feel. All of that hate for ourselves comes out as hate for the other so we will always seek to cure others but never ourselves. We are the world and we are what we see. If you want to save the world, forgive yourself. Start by forgiving others and by trying with tolerance and kindness not to put children down. There is one answer to everything and we have always know it is love.