My intent this afternoon was to watch NBA Today on ESPN – it’s playoff time – but accidentally I landed on MSNBC which was covering the proceedings of the TN legislature. That “august” body dominated by the Republican Party, thanks to gerrymandering, is voting to expel 3 Democratic legislators for the “crime” of joining a peaceful rally for common sense gun laws. And this in the wake of a mass shooting that left 3 nine year old children and 3 teachers dead. Their bodies were filled, as we know, with lethal bullets from an assault weapon wielded by a young man whose head and heart were filled with hate and whose access to such a weapon was sanctioned by law and advocated by the Republican Party in Tennessee and elsewhere.