Anti-Regulation Americans, My Fellow Americans

Yanno what would really be a big help to our country right now?

It would be a big help if every time the phrase "gun legislation" comes up you wouldn't start foaming at the mouth and screaming "NO ONE IS TAKING MY GUNS!"

Because honestly? Very, very few people want all yer damn guns- even in the wake of such a horrific tragedy.

I would consider it a tremendous favor if you could stop hollering "GUNS DON'T KILL PEOPLE- PEOPLE KILL PEOPLE!"

Especially when your leader gets up in front of god and everybody and says "Violent video games and movies killed those children". (I can't remember if that was before or after the douchebag-supremo comment about "You know who stops bad guys with guns? Good guys with guns" and offering the illegal as hell, vigilante services of his own private militia to protect our children. No thanks, asshole.)

It would be great if you didn't read or listen to someone who gives 'street cred' to their comments in favor of regulations of firearms- credentials like being members of the NRA, or being current or former active duty military, or being current or former law officers, or just having grown up hunting with their dads and granddads- things that show they DON'T hate guns...but since they utter ONE word in favor of tightening gun ownership regulations you scream, "HE'S NOT A 'GUN GUY'- HE'S A TOOL FOR THE LIBERAL AGENDA".

It would be awesome if you didn't insist that the MAIN REASON for the un-registered and un-traceable armaments you've got stored up secretly is so you- the Armed Citizens- can band together and overthrow a tyrannical government and its nefarious plans.

Really?

When ya'll gonna start???

When Wall St. tanks the economy?

When Monsanto poisons all of us??

When foreign companies take American land for a pipeline that won't do a damn thing for America???

Oh, wait- TOO FUCKING LATE on all counts!!!

And when American citizens- hundreds of thousands of 'em- mothers, fathers, veterans, children and grandparents, took to the streets to protest those very-real dangers to everyone's life, liberty and justice ya'll sat on yer guns and growled, "Damn dirty hippies- they need to take a shower and get a job".

Leaving me to deduce that the only tyranny MOST 'gun guys' are worried about is from SOMEONE THREATENING TO TAKE THEIR DAMN GUNS.

It pisses me (an American citizen, remember) way the hell off when I can't have a rational discussion about the 2nd Amendment and its INTERPRETATION- because the anti-regulation people will NOT listen to anything but how THEIR interpretation is correct and everyone else can get fucked.

On accounta it's sort of in MY constitution as well.

It REALLY pisses me off (still being an American citizen) when I'm told "IF YOU DON'T LIKE THE CONSTITUTION- GET THE HELL OUT OF AMERICA".

Because I do like the constitution just fine, thank you. And I happen to love America (again- MY country, too) and it angers me to see it turn into a dangerous third world shit-hole (you know- like you say the rest of the world is...but it's not).

And just like the bible is interpreted in many different ways, so is the US Constitution. By Americans.

Like me.

Who live in America and love it just as deeply and strongly as you do.

Because it's OUR FUCKING COUNTRY, TOO.

We live in a democracy. That means that

-NO, we will NOT use the holy bible as our book of law- that would be a THEOCRACY

and

-NO, we will NOT allow your perceived "Right" to own an un-registered weapon that's sole purpose is to kill a lot of people in a short amount of time to stand in the way of, I dunno- my right to NOT BE KILLED BY YOUR DAMN GUN or one just like it. Because thinking that THAT is freedom is not democracy, either. It's lunacy.

No other civilized country in the world has such lax regulations on firearms- none. And yet not a one of them has a fraction of the crime, the violence, the incarceration rate that we do. It's not because they're oppressed and their freedoms are stifled. It's because they don't have the same weapons fetish the NRA has foisted on the American gun culture since the mid '70's.

Before then, the NRA was PRO-regulation. It was a hunter support and training organization. You won't see a single mention of the 2nd Amendment in their monthly magazine till then.

Yes. 50 years. Not 200 years. That's how long Americans have screamed "2ND AMENDMENT RIGHTS- TAKE MY GUNS OUT OF MY COLD DEAD HAND!" It's a marketing ploy.

Just like "In God We Trust" and "One Nation Under God" was added to our currency and Pledge in the '50's. During the Red Scare. Not 200 years ago.

And it's worked fabulously. We have a nation of apparently amnesia-ridden religious zealot, heavily armed gun fanatics. Hooray.

I refuse to get into a semantics pissing match about how "when guns are outlawed only outlaws will have guns" because see above about NO ONE WANTS ALL YOUR DAMN GUNS.

I'm sorry, really sorry that you feel like your personal arsenal will someday wing the USA to freedom, that somehow you've fought tooth and nail to preserve what you feel is a god-given right (funny, because god's not in the constitution, either).

IF the 2nd Amendment guarantees citizens to own the same weapons as the military (which it doesn't) then we all need drones and missile launchers and tanks. Because no way anything you got will be able to stand against the wimpiest thing the US military can toss your way.

Just ask (fill in the blank with the name of any nation we've bombed the shit out of for no good reason).

IF there's really a conspiracy to get the entire planet on a one-world order ticket to slavery and submission, whatever you got will not stop it. I suggest that you've been feeding that beast by buying up all those weapons and ammo since most of the gun manufacturers are owned by just one or two corporations.

They're LETTING you have them. They're encouraging you to buy them and pocketing your money. When it's no longer profitable for you to have them, they'll come and take them. With the flick of a switch, America can be without fuel, power, internet, water. How are you going to fight THAT?

IF there's really a conspiracy so that "every time gun legislation comes up there just 'happens' to be a mass shooting and isn't that strange?" I've got horrible and chilling news for you. Who profits most from such a tragedy? The liberals? The gun control lobby? Or whoever gets all the cash from the run on all guns and ammo when the call goes out to "GET IT WHILE YOU STILL CAN!!!"?

Stop feeding the beast.

Stop feeding the main beast who is not the NRA, not the government, not the CIA and not the goddamn liberal patchouli-smelling hippies.

The main beast is fear.

Fear breeds division, hatred, suspicion, insanity. We're there, in case you haven't noticed.

You are my fellow Americans. I am your fellow American.

This is OUR country.

Don't listen to the man behind the curtain who hisses, "ANY REGULATION IS THE BEGINNING OF THE SLIPPERY SLOPE INTO SLAVERY! LIVE FREE OR DIE!"

We're a democracy. Looks to me like a whole lot of us want to be at least as civilized as the rest of the world...and this is OUR country, too.

Really.

OUR side is not telling YOUR side to hand us all your guns. We're not. Listen to US and not FOX News, not World Net Daily, not the NRA and for gawd's sake not that ridiculous Alex Jones. That way madmen lie and madness lies.

Our original Pledge of Allegiance was a thing of beauty, and it's what I personally recite when people all around me at some event put their hands over their hearts and stare at the flag. It was written by a Baptist minister, who PURPOSELY left out any mention of god. It's simple, and powerful, and perfect

I pledge allegiance to the flag
of the United States of America
And To the republic
For which it stands
One nation
INDIVISIBLE
With liberty and justice for all.

We're divided, ya'll. It's only taken 60 years or so to crush this nation from within. God and Guns.

Those two clarion calls those on the Right hold so dear are flat NOT supposed to be what they are right now.

They were NOT what they are right now when the founding fathers penned the constitution.

We are living the collapse the founders feared.

And we're being told that it's from a lack of the very things that will be our destruction.

Put down the bible. Lay down the gun. Stand up for America.

If I Could Say One Thing Before the Party Gets Started...

Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

And that, in a nutshell, is what I'm feeling about the death of Osama BinLaden.

I'm half Sicilian, so I believe that there are, in fact, some people who just need killing but I also believe that to REJOICE in their deaths- no matter how deserved- is more than misguided, it's evil.

I have a friend, a dear friend whose son was gunned down execution-style exactly 5 years ago today. Although they know who the killer is, he walks free until they have "enough rope to hang him with" because without hard and fast evidence there's a chance that he'd be acquitted in a jury trial.

Frustrating? Oh, yeah.

Maddening? Absolutely.

Even as 'merely' her friend it makes me crazy that this is taking so long to bring to an end, a closure, some goddamn justice.

But lets just say...

Lets just say they get the evidence. It goes to trial and he gets the death penalty (because here in Texas we still do that).

There are no appeals and no calls from the governor and my friend witnesses the death of her son's killer.

I've known her nigh on 20 years and can say with some assurance that there would not be a smile on her face, no joy, no satisfaction.

I can say with some assurance that she'd be weeping. From the still-fresh wound of the loss of her son, at the brand new wound of the loss of someone else's son (no matter how badly he turned out, he's still someones' son).

Because even with Justice Served, her baby is still gone forever. The death of someone else's baby will not bring him back. Ever.

So, should Osama BinLaden not have been assassinated? No, he clearly needed to be dead.

But we do not honor OUR dead, OUR loved ones, by rejoicing in the death of another- no matter who he was.

We honor our dead by a moment of silence, a deep sigh of resignation, and by wasting not one minute- not one second- on bloodthirsty relish.

The people who lost their lives both in the attack on our soil and overseas in our armed services are lost forever, and the death of even the admitted author of the attack does not change that one iota.

We honor those we have loved and lost by striving every day to live lives of honor, and truth, and justice yes- but also of compassion and peace.

Ironically, it's those last two that sometimes take the most strength and resolve.

Take us home, Martin-

"Let no man pull you low enough to hate him."
— Martin Luther King Jr.

Honoring Our Lost By Finding Sanity

Andy Rooney had a very nice Memorial Day piece last night- photos and stories of men he'd served with during World War II- men who never came home.

I had ancestors who served overseas- my grandfather and his brothers served in World War I- grandpa came home but didn't talk about it, one great-uncle did not come home, and one did, but wasn't "quite right" ever again.

I have friends who've served during wartime and peace- making sacrifices great and small, from horrifying to merely inconvenient- in the name of our Nation and its Safety.

I thank them all for their service.

What I wanted to say here today I'd held off on putting to pixels because I wasn't sure, didn't want to minimalize in any way what our men and women in uniform are doing- have done- will continue to do- for our country.

But at the end of his on-air time, Andy Rooney said (and I'm paraphrasing) that the greatest way to honor those who will never come home is to make sure, to find a way, somehow, that no one has to ever die again in a war.

And that's what I wanted to say.

I wanted to say that while I understand that nations consist of people and people are by nature argumentative and squirrely and that there will most likely always be disagreements, bad feelings and even hatred between different societies, there MUST be a better way of dealing with it than to have each country throw wave after wave of living bodies at the other one.

I've long thought that if the leader of one country was pissed off at the leader of another one, we should just arm them both and let 'em have at it.

Winner take all.

I know world leaders think long and hard before resorting to armed conflict, but I guaran-damn-tee that they'd think one more time if it were their own asses entering the ring.

Now, granted, alot of world leaders are not particularly scrappy nor physically fit, which is a hoot since they're the ones who throw other peoples' kids at the war machine, so maybe World Leader Armed Combat would not be the most prudent way to solve it.

No worries- I still think it's a good idea,

AND I can eliminate pretty much not only the hellacious expense of staging a giant war by not using huge amounts of ammo, vehicles and bodies to accomplish it

AND not only will it not cost the entire national budget- it would actually diminish the national debt-

*Pay Per View Mercenary Foreign Relations Dispute Resolution*

I'm not kidding and not in the least making light of the Day- historically, it's been done.

The greatest warrior of each country battling each other mano e mano- the stuff of legend, the stuff of story and song, made all that much better by the modern technology that would allow spectators to watch from the comfort of their own homes- to be up close to history without the danger of dying for it.

Because at the end of the day, no matter what starts a war, the end result is never who is "right" and who is "wrong", but who has the most money, toys and sheer amount of bodies to throw at it- bodies that happen to be someone's son, daughter, father, mother- humans that should be at home with their loved ones doing normal human things for the duration of their normal human life.

There ARE humans who enjoy a good fight- live for the thrill, the excitement, the hunt, the strategy, and even the pain. Every society has them.

These are the men (and women) who should be fighting each other.

Of course the optimal scenario would be for everyone to get along and to not fight wars at all.

Tree-huggin' ol' hippiechick that I am, even I am not prepared to believe humanity is that...human.

Next best thing- leave the wars to the warriors and leave the majority of us literally in peace.

To those serving, and who have served- I thank you, my family thanks you, and we wish you and your families homecoming- and peace.