“Hey Ben, how are you?”

“Good,” I replied before my mother nudged me with her elbow. “I mean I’m well,” I corrected myself.

My mother taught English for years. Throughout her career, she also was an assistant principal, a principal, and worked for several years in the central office of one of the top counties for education in Georgia. Basically, she’s a rock star in education.

My aunt Norma was an elementary school teacher for years before becoming a principal at one of the most prestigious private schools in the metro Atlanta area. My cousin has been a music teacher at almost every level from elementary to college. His wife is an elementary school principal.

My sister and brother-in-law both teach in the same high school in ATL. My wife teaches at the same elementary school that my oldest son goes to. Next year, my youngest son will go there too.

So yeah… the profession of education runs deep in our family. (I was a black sheep that decided to play around with code and design instead.)

If a shooter were to open fire on the high school that my sister and brother-in-law teach at, or the school that my wife and kids are at… I don’t want to finish that sentence.

When President Trump met with students, parents and teachers last night to listen to what they had to say about school shootings, here’s what I wished he had said:

“The future of this country depends on solving this problem, and we will turn over every stone to solve it. Mental health checks, gun control, more security in schools, video game and media regulations… nothing is off the table. We will explore every option.”

That said, putting more guns in schools by arming teachers should be explored, and then quickly dismissed as the first solution off the table. I don’t want my wife, sister, or brother-in-law having to step in and defend themselves with a pistol against a psycho with a semi-auto assault rifle. Uh, HELL NO.

A few days ago, I proposed a “smart-gun” solution on Facebook, which sparked a lot of conversation. The “smart-gun” solution is a good one, but shouldn’t be the only one.

If we are serious about solving this problem — which hopefully we are — we have to listen to all sides. The left blames the ease of access of assault rifles like AR-15’s. The right blames mental health and video games. Fine. Let’s find solutions for all of it. A plan that attacks the problem from all sides might look like this:

• Ban the sale of assault rifles, with the exception of active duty military personnel or law enforcement officers.
• Require annual renewals and inspections for gun registrations. To renew your registration, you must pass a mental health background check, and have completed a gun safety course in the last five years. Your gun also must pass inspection (see next point).
• All guns must be outfitted with a “smart-gun” system. This includes a GPS chip that detects if the gun is within 50 meters of a school campus, or other “safe zones”. If the gun is in a safe zone, the system prevents the gun from being fired.
• Increase security in the schools. All schools will have at least one armed security guard on campus. Larger high schools may require two. All classrooms will be upgraded with bulletproof glass, and a panic button will be installed in every classroom. The main office of the school should be able to lock down all hallways and rooms with the push of a button, similar to a hospital.
• Regulate the violence in video games, TV shows, and movies. Ban the sale and creation of video games that depict extreme violence. Ban TV shows that depict extreme violence. Require ID to see movies that depict extreme violence (must be 18 or older.)

Yes, this will be expensive. But Elon Musk just put a Tesla in space, and the NRA pays millions to politicians, so don’t tell me we don’t have the resources. There may be more solutions needed, but this gives a good place to start. We have failed our children. It’s time to end it, by whatever means necessary.

The two-party system has failed us.

Tonight’s debate will likely be one of the largest televised debates in recent memory, if not in history all together. “Bigger than the Super Bowl,” I’ve heard some proclaim.

But I won’t be watching, and you should consider turning off the boob tube as well.

Before I make my case, let me be clear that it does partly have to do with Gary Johnson; however, I’m not a Johnson-ite. I might vote for him, I might not. I honestly haven’t decided.

This debate is about one thing: Ratings. That’s right. Cold. Hard. Ratings. If the debate headline was Trump vs. Clinton vs. Johnson, it’s just not as impactful as Trump vs. Clinton. The crook vs the bigot. The woman vs the womanizer. It makes great TV, right? If you throw in an honest guy that nobody’s heard of (but most people would probably like), the show loses its punch.

That’s why the debate commission changed the rules to require a candidate have 15% of the vote. Ross Perot was the last third-party candidate to be included in a nationally televised debate, and Johnson already is polling higher than he was.

Which brings us back to my first statement: The two-party system has failed us. The CPD is headed by a group of Republicans and Democrats. Those two groups rarely agree on anything, even in the face of tragedy. The one thing they do agree on? That they both have a better chance of winning if there aren’t other parties involved.

The problem is that in this election in particular, both parties failed to produce a viable candidate for the presidency. The DNC illegally stacked the deck in favor of Clinton. The most optimistic logic for doing so is because they didn’t want to be embarrassed. Clinton was a foregone conclusion. She was supposed to be the clear winner without much of a contest at all. But then the emails, the Clinton Foundation, and oh yeah, Bernie. So the DNC decided to run with what they already knew: Hillary. (For the more pessimistic logic, turn on Fox News.)

The RNC was the exact opposite. They tried to put everyone they could possibly think of on stage to fight Trump. Even Chris Christie made it on there, showing just how desperate they were. But they didn’t break the rules, mostly because they were so confident that Trump wouldn’t win that they didn’t feel the need to.

So here we are. Trump is the Republican nominee, and Republicans hate it. Hillary is the Democratic nominee, and Democrats hate it. And yet, the CPD still gives the bird to third-party candidates like Johnson.

When a company, person, or system fails at something, I’m quick to give them a second chance. But — if we’re being honest with ourselves — this isn’t the first time the two-party system has failed. It’s not even the second time. When was the last time we had a great president? One that would be remembered in the same breath as Lincoln, Jefferson, FDR, or Eisenhower? Shouldn’t our candidates be getting better, not worse?

The two-party system has been failing for a long, long time, and it’s only getting worse. But we’re stuck with it. Until we’re not. Until we decide that we want better.

I want better. I won’t help them get the ratings they crave. I’m boycotting.

In all seventeen jobs, the one I am about to leave has been my favorite, and it’s not even close.

Today, I am leaving my job at Paramore Digital , where I have served as the Engineering Director for the last five years, to join Parker and Colin Polidor in creating CaredFor.

What I love about Paramore

Everything about Paramore is cool. The people are cool. The office space is cool. We play ping pong. We have basketball contests on an arcade-style game. We play cornhole on a rooftop deck that overlooks Nashville — one of the coolest cities in the USA. We party. A lot. Work hard, play hard. That’s the Paramore way.

But that doesn’t even begin to describe the people there. Hannah Paramore, the sole owner of the company, has never taken a business class in her life, yet she’s the smartest business woman I know. She has taken a business that she started out of her kitchen and turned it into one of the most successful and highly sought after digital agencies in the southeast. Perhaps that’s why she is trusted by Nashville’s mayor to do things like spearhead a task force to explore mass transit options for the city.

Everyone at Paramore — the project managers, account managers, designers, developers, content writers, and media specialists — is extremely talented. I’ve told every employee I’ve hired that you can’t hide at Paramore. Everyone expects you to be great at your job, and if you’re not, you stick out. This is not the place where you can hide in a cubicle, keep your head down, and nobody knows you’re there for the next ten years. You are either great at your job, or you don’t last.

To be able to work with and lead such talented people has been one of the best experiences of my life. The best way to grow is to work with people more talented than yourself. And I’ve grown a lot at Paramore.

Why I’m leaving

Be passionate in what you’re making.

As I’ve said, I live in Nashville. My parents live in Atlanta. My mother was recently diagnosed with breast cancer. I’ll spare you the details, but she has been going through it in a tough battle since the beginning of the year. Being about 300 miles away from her has been hard. I want to be there for her. I want to help her and encourage her. But there is only so much I can do from here.

That’s what drew me to CaredFor. I knew first hand how a product like this can help. I had already wished that a service like this existed before I was ever approached to help create it. My mom will have hopefully won her battle by the time this product hits market. But my prayer is that it can help other people going through their own journeys.

Shape your own environment.

Ever since September 17th, 2009 — the day I welcomed my first kid into the world — I wanted to be a living example for him that work doesn’t have to suck. You have to work; there’s no getting around that. But you don’t have to hate your job. You can be happy at work. That’s why I chose to work at a place like Paramore. I wanted to enjoy going to work, and I wanted both of my kids to see that.

At CaredFor, I hope to take that even further. I want to teach my boys that life is what you make of it. I want the opportunity to help establish a culture where employees love coming to work, and I want my boys to see that.

It’s okay to take risks.

I also want my kids to know that it’s okay to take risks. Even if you fail, it doesn’t mean it was wrong to take the risk. There’s a lot you can learn from failure. Just ask all the greatest athletes.

That’s not to say you should always take a risk, or to take every risk. Any fool can take a risk. The key is knowing when and which risk to take. I’m 34 years old, and have two young boys. One of them is already in public school, and the other will be soon. I decided it’s better for me to take a risk now, than when the boys are close to college, or when I am close to retirement.

Help out humanity.

We all make up humanity. Every one of us. What good is mankind if we don’t help each other? What good is it to be human if we don’t do everything we can to support each other?

That’s why I’m excited to help create a service like CaredFor. I hope it helps.