Nevins was addicted to heroin and crack cocaine and had been for over a decade. She'd spent time in jail but couldn't get clean. In November 2014, Nevins was homeless and living on the roof of a building when she was arrested.
Nevins had hit bottom. But a judge offered her a lifesaving opportunity.
He offered her a chance to go to treatment at a rehab facility. Nevins accepted, mostly to get fed and stay warm, but she quickly realized this was her chance to find the fulfillment and consistency she longed for.
Then and there, she made the commitment to save her life.
Founded in 2000, the Red Hook Community Justice Center is a community court for civil, family, and criminal cases from Red Hook, a neighborhood in southwest Brooklyn, New York. Cases are heard by a single judge, Calabrese, who operates his courtroom out of an old, remodeled Catholic school.
Calabrese (center) at work in his courtroom.
Red Hook Community Justice Center is different from most courtrooms because jail and prison are no longer the first, last, or only options.
Instead Calabrese works with professionals to offer mental health treatment, drug rehab, community restoration projects (sweeping, painting over graffiti), and even support groups. There are also social workers on staff to help offenders find and access appropriate resources like GED classes and therapy.
This isn't just a job for Calabrese; it's a chance to improve lives and better the community.
"We give people the opportunity to do the work, but they're the ones that have to do the work," Calabrese told Upworthy. "And then I get to see the power of the human spirit in the courtroom because it's amazing how far people can come back and get themselves to a place where they're addressing their needs."
And the center is more than courthouse. It's a hub for community involvement. Residents can access housing resources, take classes and workshops, get information about community service projects, and attend community events.
And many former offenders, including Pauline Nevins, have made the most of their second chance.
She completed treatment and became a drug counselor.
And she's stayed close with the judge who got her on the right track.
"Pauline is an amazing person," Calabrese said. "And I've always told her that she's in the best position to tell other people what they need to do, and to understand how difficult it is, because she's been there."
The unlikely friends even took a selfie together.
It sits at her mother's house. The same mother who used to fear every late-night phone call now talks to her daughter all the time — the same mother who beams with pride when she thinks of how far her daughter has come.
Because programs like this don't just save daughters. They save fathers, grandkids, neighbors, friends, families, and entire communities. They give everyone another shot.
See Nevins and Calabrese's story in this inspiring Upworthy Original:
On Feb. 19, 2016, Albert Woodfox turned 69 years old. On that same day, he walked out of a Louisiana prison a free man after serving over 45 years — 43 of them in solitary confinement, which is longer than anyone else in U.S. history.
Woodfox's case had long been the object of passionate protest and advocacy from civil and human rights groups around the world who believed that the 23 hours a day he spent in a 6-foot-by-9-foot cell for over half of his life was not only inhumane but particularly unfathomable for a man whose charges were believed to be based on false evidence and politically motivated. (To learn more about his case, do some research on The Angola Three, the name given to him and two others placed in solitary confinement for the same event in 1972.)
But it wasn't just hardcore human rights activists and civil rights historians who knew Woodfox's name.
When news of the 69-year-old's release spread, thousands across the country rejoiced.
How and why did so many people know about a man incarcerated over 45 years ago?
There are probably many reasons. But an undeniable factor in the spread of one man's unjust treatment was the fact that more than once, the story of Woodfox's case, imprisonment, and resilience has been told through arguably the most universal language known to man: art.
Last December, a group of 12 visual artists gathered in New Orleans to create original works representing ongoing cases of human rights violations around the world.
The artists who participated, convened by Art for Amnesty's creative director Marvin Bing, are those who see their purpose as not only to tell stories that reflect the rich diversity of cultures and experiences that they know as artists of color. They also believe it is their responsibility to tell stories that tangibly make people's lives — and the world — better.
Woodfox's case was one of those stories.
Philadelphia artist Jesse Krimes, who himself spent a year in solitary confinement in federal prison, built a simulated cell for the installation for people to experience the size of such inhumane imprisonment. Artsit Brandan "B-Mike" Odums did just that, standing in it to "physically step inside that reality, that physical space" and bring another level of empathy to the mural tribute to Woodfox that he would be painting.
A New Orleans native, Odums ascribes to the idea that art's purpose is to speak truth.
" I can't pretend to speak my truth without trying to embody a sensitivity to the sufferings of everyday people. ... It's important that we keep saying these people's names, that we keep telling their stories so that we can't escape from the reality of what is happening. "
Woodfox's story was just the tip of the iceberg for other cases creatively rendered that day.
Artist Katie Yamasaki's work told the story of Teodora del Carmen Vásquez, an El Salvadoran woman sentenced to 30 years in prison for "aggravated homicide" after suffering a still-birth at work.
Teodora, mother of an 11-year-old boy, was expecting a new baby when she started experiencing increasingly severe pain. She called emergency services, but before they arrived, she went unconscious and ultimately gave birth.
When she woke up, she was bleeding profusely and her newborn baby was dead. When police arrived, they took her to the hospital where she could get the urgent treatment she needed. But not before handcuffing and arresting her on suspicion of murder.
In El Salvador, women who miscarry or suffer a still-birth during pregnancy are routinely suspected of having had an abortion. Abortion under any circumstance is a crime, even in cases of rape, incest, or where a woman’s life is at risk.
Making the artwork even more meaningful, Yamasaki was an expectant mother herself.
Ordinarily she has a simple reason for her work as a painter: "The purpose of the art is to tell a story. And the purpose of telling a story is to tell a story that might not have been told before or tell a story that needs to be told."
But, she said, telling Teodora's story during her own pregnancy was especially emotional and poignant.
Artist Douglas Miles had a similarly personal reason for his piece on the plight of an imprisoned cartoonist.
As a Native American, Miles believes his role is very clearly "to push back against institutional racism." His work highlighted the Malaysian political cartoonist Zunar, who was imprisoned after posting tweets condemning the jailing of an opposition leader in his country.
Miles said he appreciates the powerful role that social media plays in expanding audience's access to their work which otherwise would not be seen galleries and museums. With that, and the ongoing oppression of Inidigenous peoples, in mind, he visually represented Zunar's story.
Artist Jessica "J-Hand" Strand chose to create a piece exploring the life of Saman Naseem, a 17-year-old juvenile offender who was tortured and still awaits a fair trial.
Previous activism already resulted in Saman's death sentence being stopped. But now, still imprisoned at 21 years old, he has yet to be retried.
Strand's passion for the case connects directly to her roots in New Orleans, a city known for its high levels of incarceration.
Her final work was a visually stunning depiction of not just Saman but of the impact of vision through the lens of torture and imprisonment.
Those are just four of the 12 stories immortalized that day.
From Jerome Lagarrigue's piece highlighting the story of a vicious LGBTQ hate crime in Athens, Greece, to Hebru Brantly's visual reminder that "all truths aren’t considered free" to Bayunga Kialeuka's mural challenging the unjust police regime in the Congo — each brought with it its own astounding level of "I can't believe this is happening in the year 2015. And something must be done."
Fortunately, Amnesty International provided an opportunity to do a powerful something for the over 4,500 attendees who came to watch the artists and show their support at the free event.
The day's events were connected to Amnesty International's Write for Rights, a global letter-writing campaign encouraging people all over the world to write letters in protest of these and other open human rights cases.
When curating the show, Bing knew the art's ultimate power to inspire empathy and action must be met with immediate opportunities to harness the shock, outrage, and passion for justice into something tangible and impactful.
Over 15,000 letters were written that day.
The art's inclusion in that campaign wasn't simply a creative addition to the ongoing work for justice and human rights. It brought hope that our expression, our voices can indeed make a difference.
It was a hope that for Albert Woodfox was finally realized months later when the tireless efforts of activists, lawyers, letter-writers, and, yes, also artists finally paid off.
The artists in New Orleans and the cases that they selected were featured in a beautiful short film "Canvases of Courage,"directed by Gerard Bush and Christopher Renz (Bush|Renz) and executive produced by Bing with the support of Amnesty International USA and Art for Amnesty. The film premiered in January 2016 during Golden Globes weekend and is now traveling the country. Take a look to see each of the beautiful murals in full and hear the artists also share their own story.
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A note from the "Canvases of Courage" director Gerard Bush on the relevance of the film to the current ongoing debate over diversity and representation in Hollywood:
"People of color have to be responsible for telling our own stories through the prism of authenticity. Hollywood has long controlled the stories that get told and how how those stories are told ultimately. Albert Woodfox was freed as a result of a coordinated effort and I would like to believe our film made some small difference. I think that matters at a time when the Academy has completely ignored us."
A study of nursing home patients found that residents who sang show tunes — specifically from "Oklahoma!" "The Wizard of Oz," and "The Sound of Music" — demonstrated increased mental performance, according to a report in the New York Daily News:
"Researchers working with elderly residents at an East Coast care home found in a four-month long study ... that people who sang their favorite songs showed a marked improvement compared to those who just listened."
Even better? There are tons of classic show tunes specifically about remembering.
Here are 23 tunes every Broadway fan needs to memorize for the day when it's not so easy to remember. It'll help to start brushing up now.
1. The one about remembering the good old days.
"Those Were the Good Old Days," "Damn Yankees"
If you're the devil in "Damn Yankees," that means the Great Depression, the Black Plague years, and when Jack the Ripper was running around. Good times!
2. The one about remembering a parade that probably never happened.
"76 Trombones," "The Music Man"
Any playlist of show tunes about memory has to include this standard from "The Music Man," in which Professor Harold Hill remembers the best day of his life, when "Gilmore, Liberati, Pat Conway, The Great Creatore, W.C. Handy, and John Phillip Sousa all came to town."
Whether or not any of it actually happened is ... up for debate, to put it mildly.
3. The one about remembering a really fun trip you took to a medium-sized Midwestern city.
"Kansas City," "Oklahoma"
"Oklahoma's" Will Parker is so psyched about his Kansas City vacation he can't help bragging about it to all the other cowboys. And why not? It's a neat city! Have you been to Joe's Kansas City Barbecue? Neither has Will Parker, since he was there in 1906, but you should totally go.
4. The one about remembering how fun it was to murder that guy that one time...
5. The one about remembering the questionable choices it's too late to go back in time and not make.
"Where Did We Go Right?" from "The Producers"
Looking back doesn't always go well for characters in musicals. It definitely doesn't for "The Producers'" Bialystock and Bloom, as they tear around their office wondering how their incompetently directed, poorly acted, aggressively pro-Hitler musical wound up becoming a massive hit despite their every attempt to make it fail.
6. The one about remembering the little things.
"I Remember/Stranger Than You Dreamt It," "Phantom of the Opera"
Perhaps the greatest testament to how emotionally transporting "Phantom of the Opera" is: Christine, removing the phantom's mask for the first time, can just straight-up claim to remember mist— like, one mist in particular — and no one calls her on it ever.
7. The one about remembering the worst day of your life.
"The Barber and his Wife," "Sweeney Todd"
No character in musical theater is more nostalgic than Sweeney Todd, who, just moments after we meet him, croons this delightful ditty reminiscing about the time he was framed for a crime he didn't commit and banished from England so that an evil judge could rape his wife who subsequently poisoned herself.
A tune you can hum!
8. The one about remembering things differently than everyone else around you.
"Satisfied," "Hamilton"
Not sure if you've heard, but "Hamilton" is good, you guys.
After Alex and Eliza Schuyler meet and fall in love in "Helpless," Angelica Schuyler basically goes "Wicked" on her sister's song, recalling how agonizing it was watching her sister and the man who she herself is super into get together. But she sucks it up and buries it! Older siblings are the best.
9. The one about remembering that cute girl you just met like five seconds ago.
"Maria," "West Side Story"
A classic from "West Side Story." Sure, it's about remembering a meet-cute that literally just happened — Tony and Maria's orchestral-swell-assisted gaze across a crowded gym — but Tony is super jazzed about it, so it makes the list.
Gosh, I sure hope those crazy kids work out!
10. The one about remembering all the worst things from when you were a kid, and one kind-of-OK thing.
"At the Ballet," "A Chorus Line"
The ballet isn't that great, but it's better than devastating childhood trauma. Score one for the ballet! Thanks, "A Chorus Line!"
11. The one about remembering old hobbies.
"Dentist!" from "Little Shop of Horrors"
"Little Shop of Horrors'" Orin Scrivello, DDS, is just misunderstood. I mean, who among us didn't "shoot puppies," "poison guppies," or "take a pussycat and bash in its head" now and again as a kid? The '50s were a simpler time!
12. The one about remembering watching a dude die on the battlefield and feeling feelings about it.
"Momma Look Sharp," "1776"
47 years before "Hamilton" brought us the swaggery, ass-kicking side of the Revolutionary War, "1776" tore our guts out with this song, in which a courier to the Continental Congress recalls watching a mother comfort a young soldier as he dies at the battles of Lexington and Concord.
Hercules Mulligan does the guest rap. (Just kidding. There is no guest rap. It's just gorgeously somber for a while and then over.)
13. The one about remembering the best four years of your life.
"I Wish I Could Go Back to College," "Avenue Q"
Of course the sad-sack puppet man- and woman-children of "Avenue Q" want to go back to college! Who among us doesn't long for the days of term papers, humiliating romantic encounters, and crushing, debilitating debt? And meal-plan ice cream, too!
14. The one about remembering some A-plus advice from your best friend.
"Cabaret,""Cabaret"
Ladies and gentlemen, Sally Bowles from "Cabaret" is no fool! No matter how many lovers leave, or how much her career nosedives, or how nutty local politics get, she always remembers this important life lesson she learned from her good friend Elsie.
If only you had such a great, wise friend, maybe your outlook would be as good as Sally's. You could be so lucky!
15. The one about remembering last Christmas.
"Halloween," "Rent"
When it comes to the science of memory and cognition, "Rent" asks the big questions:
"Why are entire years strewn on the cutting room floor of memories? When single frames from one magic night forever flicker in close-up on the 3-D Imax of my mind?"
Poetic? Pathetic? We report, you decide.
16. The one about remembering everything and realizing how terrible it all was.
"Rose's Turn," "Gypsy"
Ah, yes. "Rose's Turn." The 11 o'clock number to end all 11 o'clock numbers in "Gypsy," the most musical of all musicals. Truly, there aren't many things more enjoyable than listening to Mama Rose replay the events of the last decade and change inside her own brain in a slow-motion nervous breakdown as the notion that her entire life has been completely worthless gradually dawns on her with ever-increasing dread.
Did I mention how fun musicals are?
Trivia time! You know that thing in music where trumpets go, "Ya da da da daaaa DA. Da DA da DA!" You know that thing? This is the song that thing comes from.
17. The one about remembering the first time you knew what you wanted to be when you grew up.
"Ring of Keys," "Fun Home"
There's nothing better than a song that makes you want to shout: "I am so glad I'm watching a musical instead of a basketball game right now." This moment in "Fun Home," where Alison recalls seeing a delivery woman — the first person who looked like the woman she felt like — is really, really one of them.
"This is a song of identification that is a turning moment, when you think you’re an alien and you hear someone else say, 'Oh, me too,'" composer Jeanine Tesori told Variety. "It’s a gamechanger for Alison. And that’s just Musical Theater 101."
...And the entire audience bursts into happy tears forever.
18. The one about remembering a nice dream you dreamed.
"I Dreamed a Dream," "Les Misérables"
When your life isn't going so great, it's good to remember the positive! Things didn't exactly go super well for Fantine in "Les Mis." But, hey, she had a pretty good dream once!
19. The one about remembering your single greatest regret and vowing to never remember it again.
"Turn It Off," "The Book of Mormon"
What's the ticket to living as fun-loving and guilelessly as the Mormon elders in "The Book of Mormon?" Don't just bury those traumatic, scary, impure memories — CRUSH THEM, OK?!
20. The one about remembering a really successful first date.
"Sarah Brown Eyes," "Ragtime"
Ah, young love. Even in "Ragtime," a musical that features racism, state violence, attempted child murder, and terrorism, at least we have this song, in which Coalhouse Walker Jr. recalls how he got his beloved Sarah to fall truly, madly, deeply in love with him with his peerless piano skills? So romantic.
Gosh, I sure hope those crazy kids work out!
21. The one about remembering a scary dream.
"Sit Down, You're Rockin' the Boat," "Guys and Dolls"
With, perhaps, only a smidge more credibility than grifter-from-another-mother Professor Harold Hill, "Guys and Dolls'" third-most-degenerate gambler Nicely-Nicely Johnson recalls a terrifying dream where he had to convince a group of skeptical evangelical crusaders that he's decided to give up the dice once and for all.
Side note: People in musicals are unbelievably good at remembering dreams. This is, like, full detail. I'd be like, "Um, I was at the Statue of Liberty, and you were there? I think? It wasn't really you, it was like a combination of you and my dad. And we were in prison. But at the Statue of Liberty."
22. The one about remembering how it used to be when you were young and full of hope instead of old and bitter and jaded.
"Our Time," "Merrily We Roll Along"
The closing number of "Merrily We Roll Along" is actually the first chronologically, since the musical goes backward. It's the play's happiest moment — Frank, Charley, and Mary on a roof watching Sputnik go by, giddily talking about how thrilling, perfect, and successful their futures are going to be. It's so hopeful! But so sad, 'cause you already know all the achingly bittersweet stuff that's going to happen.
When UNICEF's photographers set out to capture the light of hope, first they had to look in the darkness.
Hope is a hard thing to show in a photograph. It's not tangible, but we can feel hope in our hearts; it's invisible, yet we can see it in someone's eyes or hear it in their laugh.
Hope is a light that guides us through the darkness and the voice that sings to us in the silence. Humans need hope to carry on because, without hope, life would be too damn hard.
"Finding Hope," the new photo series by UNICEF's photographers is a stunning exposé about what hope looks like in the most dire situations.
In search of hope, these photographers traveled to people living in some of the biggest humanitarian crises of our time to find that most intangible and often fleeting human emotion.
When they found it, the results were breathtaking:
1. In Ghana, hope is...
Photo by Nyani Quarmyne/UNICEF, used with permission.
Hope is Munira Yakubu holding up Lorentia Bernard, her 2-year-old daughter, at their home in Widana in the Upper East region of Ghana.
Munira and Lorentia were abandoned by Lorentia's father. Murina is still in school and sells maize and groundnuts outside her house during school holidays to earn money to pay her school fees and support her daughter.
2. In Nepal, hope is...
Photo by Brian Sokol/UNICEF, used with permission.
Hope is Kuisang Rumba, a famous Tamang language actor, dancing with 9-year-old Jamuna Nepali at a UNICEF Child-Friendly Space in Charikot, Dolakha District, Nepal.
On April 25, 2015, a magnitude 7.8 earthquake killed more than 8,000 people and destroyed massive amounts of property, including numerous temples that were on the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
3. In Jordan, hope is...
Photo by Ashley Gilbertson/VII Photo/UNICEF, used with permission.
Hope is 5-year-old Mohammed spraying water on his 11-year-old sister, Danya, and his cousins, 8-year-old Amnah and 4-year-old Mo’men, in the Za’atari refugee camp, in Mafraq Governorate. The family fled to this camp when their Syrian village was taken over by military forces in 2012.
The camp provides electricity at night, but during the day, refugees at the camp have to use what little water there is to combat Jordan's brutally high temperatures.
Photo by Ashley Gilbertson/VII Photo/UNICEF, used with permission.
Hope is refugees like Kinan Kadouni, 26, welcoming other refugees, like the boy he is carrying who has just arrived on the shore near the village of Skala Eressos, on the island of Lesbos, amid volunteers and other refugees. Both are refugees from the Syrian Arab Republic.
“This lovely boy made my day with his nice smile," Mr. Kadouni told UNICEF. “When their boat arrived, everyone looked pale and afraid and this boy was the only one with a big smile, and that is how he drew my attention immediately. I went directly to him and got him out of the boat and we started playing and laughing... I always try to welcome them with a smiling face because I think that will make them comfortable."
Hope is newlyweds Ibrahim and Hauna John embracing in the Minawao camp for Nigerian refugees in Far North Region. The couple got married in the camp the previous day.
While they planned to marry in their home village, they were forced to flee when it was attacked by Boko Haram insurgents. Ibrahim stayed in the village longer than Hauna in order to finish a school exam, though eventually they were reunited in the camp where they were photographed by UNICEF Africa.
“The very first day we met in the camp, I could not resist her. I had to hold her to my cheek. Really it was a great moment that day. Heaven was very close to me that day,” Ibrahim said.
7. In Uganda, hope is...
Photo by Jiro Ose/UNICEF, used with permission.
Hope is children watching a skit performed by other children at the Child Restoration Outreach, an organization helping street children in Africa.
In Africa, there are millions of children on the street. Organizations like the Child Restoration Outreach work to reintegrate them into the community, so they may become empowered, self-reliant, and proactive adults.
8. In Croatia, hope is...
Photo by Tomislav Georgiev/UNICEF, used with permission.
Hope is teenagers playing in the sun in the UNICEF-supported family area at the reception center in Opatovac. Croatia recently opened its doors to refugees from Serbia.
"There were between 2,000 and 3,000 refugees stuck on the border in the mud and rain when the gates opened," Al Jazeera wrote in October.
9. In Iraq, hope is...
Photo by Lindsay Mackenzie/UNICEF, used with permission.
Hope is Dunya, 13, opening a box of new winter shoes in her caravan in Baharka IDP Camp in Erbil Governorate.
“In conditions where children have suffered, in some cases for years, from violence and exclusion from basic services such as education, it is unacceptable for them to not have shoes, coats or hats appropriate for the winter season," says Dr. Marzio Babille, UNICEF's representative in Iraq.
These photos are powerful. They show that hope is resilient and can be found anywhere.
Even in the midst of a tragedy or in a crisis with no end in sight, the one thing people always have is a glimmer of hope.
It's not an accident that many of these pictures that encompass that feeling of hope are of children. Children have a unique ability to find hope in the world no matter where they're from or what they've been through.
That's something people lose sight of as we grow older. As life goes on and the world begins to place more weight on our shoulders, we should always remember that children all over the world continue to smile and dance. Hope can be fleeting, and hope can be false, but hope is also the reason to continue forward. Never forget that.
In the first episode of her new docu-series, Ellen Page helps a young man.
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Ellen Page and friend Ian Daniel are doing a little traveling to learn more about global gay culture.
It's all part of their new Viceland docu-series "Gaycation," following the two around the world as they interview people and interact with other cultures to learn more about what it's like to be gay in these countries, and to generally shine a light on global gay rights.
At first glance, Japan seems like it might be a pretty gay-friendly.
While the country doesn't recognize same-sex marriages, it does accept civil unions, there haven't been laws explicitly prohibiting same-sex relationships since the late 19th century, several cities throughout the country have nondiscrimination ordinances, and its predominant religions aren't anti-gay (relative to what we're used to here in the U.S.).
Still, it's not all that gay-friendly overall. It's kind of odd, really.
Even so, the homophobia in Japanese culture is, for the most part, pretty subtle.
Kanako Otsuji, Japan's first out gay politician, explains what prevents gay people from feeling comfortable: fear and shame.
While we're used to really blatant (sometimes even violent) forms of homophobia in the U.S., it's different in Japan. That is, being gay is a path to being ostracized by friends, family, and coworkers. It's faint, but present. Coming out is met with shame.
During the episode, Otsuji explains that climate and demonstrates why she's a total badass for pushing to make gay rights part of her political platform in spite of pushback.
All that is what makes this next part so powerful.
Page and Daniel were asked to tag along and provide support as a man came out as gay to his mother.
The young man wanted a friend there to support him during the difficult conversation, only he didn’t have any. So Page and Daniel came along as a show of solidarity.
In a culture where coming out is seen as shameful, the young man's bravery is stunning.
The whole scene is really touching and might just make you cry.
His mother briefly left the room, saying, "I'm sorry." Soon enough, she was back, and she did what any loving mother would do: She offered her son support and pledged to "accept it and gradually understand it."
It's important to be authentic. That's why coming out can be so crucial to one's own self-esteem and overall happiness.
It's through coming out that we can change minds and change the world.
Page ends the episode talking about the importance of coming out, and how that's the most surefire path to long-term social acceptance. (And she's right.)
"I think the interesting thing about ... people who have a hard time with [the LGBT community] ... when someone in their life comes out, the change is fast," says Page. "It’s not always super easy at first, but I feel like people evolve quite quickly. I think it’s because we all obviously understand love and desire it, and can understand what that means for other people."
Watch the entire episode of "Gaycation" below (the story of the man coming out to his mother starts at about 33 minutes).
It was around 5 p.m. CST on Thursday, Feb. 25, when an employee at a Kansas lawn care factory opened fire on his colleagues.
As always, there has been plenty of speculation about this man's motives and the past indications of his violent potential. But none of those details change the fact that he used a semi-automatic rifle to murder four people and injure 14 more, 10 of whom were put in critical condition.
This was the 49th time in 54 days that an armed American citizen has shot four or more people in a single assault.
Less than three hours later, the 10th Republican presidential debate kicked off in Houston, Texas.
Gun control is clearly a hot-button topic in America. So what did the candidates have to say about this most recent tragedy?
Oh, whoops, sorry: That was Carson talking about how he would select a new Supreme Court justice. (Though I'm still not sure exactly what that means?)
And that was also about the standoff between Apple and the FBI. Or maybe about Kasich's bathroom habits, I'm not really sure.
Ah crap, I screwed up again! That was actually in response to the less-than-flattering polling numbers that the co-hosting network reported for Trump. (And that should not be confused with the time he said "I love them" when asked about Telemundo later in the debate.)
D'oh! That wasn't about gun control, either! That was ... y'know, I'm still not exactly sure what that was about, other than Trump talking over Cruz, as Trump is wont to do.
Huh. Apparently no one said anything about it. In fact, no one mentioned the word "gun" at any point at all. Weird, right?
In his defense, John Kasich did make a comment after a different mass shooting one week earlier, where he at least said, "We have to take this issue seriously" and ... not much else of substance.
Other than that, it's pretty much a non-issue in the GOP. Like once Obama's out of the way, he'll stop taking all our guns, and we can all go back to killing each other like good Americans.
Let's hope we see something different at the next Democratic debate on Sunday, March 6. If nothing else, well, there's always Judicial Fruit Salad. Maybe that'll save us from the wrong end of an AK.
