Last week our school had a field trip to Boston's Museum of Science. The museum is a monument to human cooperation, to the tireless work of so many anonymous scientists, and ultimately to the search for truth.

I happened to notice a group of students with NMS on their shirts. I asked where they were from and they said "Newtown Middle School" as in Newtown, CT, where the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting took place in 2012, slaughtering 20 first graders and 6 staff members. I quickly calculated that these students were born right around that time. I wondered many things: did they lose older siblings, family friends, neighbors? What has it been like having had that horror in one's young consciousness? Did fear accompany them to school? How had their parents been coping? Were there norms against bringing the subject up or was there a culture that encouraged openness? 

And as our bus departed my thoughts turned toward what lessons had been learned by our country? What steps have we taken to prevent another slaughter? 

And I think we know. Nothing! On several fronts, the Trump administration has increased the likelihood of a similar tragedy. Adam Lanza, the shooter, was a victim of his biology. He had autism, severe mental health issues, and access to an AR-15. 

Trump's FY 2026 budget proposes $1 billion in cuts to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and it has cut school-based mental health programs. RFK Jr. has peddled junk science related to vaccines and autism, and pledges to uncover autism's cause by September 1! This is dangerously counterproductive and absurd on so many levels! Lastly, the Trump administration has decided to permit the sale of devices that enable standard firearms to fire like machine guns. 

Perhaps we need a Museum of Human Stupidity, where we put under the microscope our blood-stained history of selfishness, arrogance, indifference, tribalism, and most importantly, our embrace of unjustified beliefs. 

Peter T.