Mattes's Musings by KC2GIK

I turned 40 back on March 15 and have been reflecting a lot on my life. One of the treasure I have in life is a wonderful family and great friends. I wrote the piece below as part as the introduction to some writings I did in high school. Stephen Gold and I met in grade school .Even though we were the same age, the school held me back which was really the start of a very bumpy road for me. We separated for awhile and were reunited at Pascack Valley High School Stephen was born with MS. Doctors said he wouldn't see his fifth birthday, he lived triple that amount of time. He was one of the first, if not THE FIRST, children in Bergen County to break the bonds of special education. i don't know the background but even though he lived in River Vale, he went to Dorchester School  in Woodcliff Lake with Darren, another kid with CP, and myself. He graduated Pascack Valley in 1996 and was scheduled to attend Ramapo College that September. Stephen didn't make it, he succumbed  to his...

Like clockwork as soon as the news of the Texas killing happened, folks on both sides of the  gun control debate went to their respective battle stations. Both took their predictable tones and finger pointing while America collectively demanded once again our elected officials "do something". I am in that camp too, but I am not hopeful it will be done because nobody actually wants the cycle to break, that's how they'll get reelected, on both sides. Nobody actually wants to fix the problem properly because neither side wants to feel they are taking rights away, gun rights or privacy rights. The clear backpacks the Parkland students oppose would work better than the strongest gun control laws because it would detect guns. It would also stop knives, bombs which the killer in this incident had and tried to detonate and any other devices or tools that could be used as a weapon. That alone would solve the problem better than any other gun laws on the books, but I don't ...