Friday, December 14, 2012

What Can We Stand For In America?

Last Tuesday I was getting ready to leave for ballet class and heard on the news a shooting had happened at the Clackamas Towne Center Mall about twenty minutes away from where I live.   America likes to think the "terrorists" are ...over there somewhere.....and love our violent movies, video games, music,  magazines, books, and television.

Today I read on a blog that teaches writing...."If you don't torture yourself with hardship, and suffering you are torturing readers with boredom."  What is this fascination?  I listen to OPB radio when in my car.  I only drive for ten minutes at a time.  Many times I have to turn the radio off because the stories are all too gruesome to be of any value to me and my life.  Just the other day someone was telling a reporter "her sister was being stabbed in the throat...."  I know the head in the sand expression but that is just one of many stories now that has taken over the airwaves of National Public Broadcasting supposedly the ONLY intellectual media left alive.

Now today the morning news comes across my computer screen about the mass murder of children and teachers at a grade school in Connecticut.  Is this going to be just another day in America?   What do we stand for?  If we all need guns in our homes to protect ourselves who is the enemy?   My father had guns and loved to shoot.  He took me shooting once and I hated it.  He would shoot beer cans for sport and go hunting for deer and moose.  One year he finally saw a deer, shot it, brought it home to put in our freezer and we ate venison for many dinners.  He never went hunting again.  The thrill was gone.  My father was the most loving, mellow man I have ever known and he loved his guns.  So I don't get it.
 
Is there another way to live?  Is it possible to begin with the hearts and minds of our own self?  If one really chooses violence as a form of entertainment is it going to creep into real life?  Does real life mimic our environment?  Is there a way to love our self and then each other or does the gun come first then lets think about love.  Do you really have to kill another human being in order to protect yourself?  Do you know anyone mentally ill?  If you think someone is "different"  do you avoid them?  What else can you do?

There is no such thing as being able to control anything let alone guns.  What made the mother and kindergarten teacher want those guns?  Did she know how to use them to protect herself?  Where did she go to learn how to use them?  Or were they for her children to learn how to use in order to protect her?  If guns are so useful to protect each other what is the problem?  Are many more humans in America and else where alive today because we have guns to protect us?  This is what we need to decide?  I wager people that own guns own them because they like them and think they are fun but it sounds better to think and say they are for some kind of protection. 

But here come another round of arguments. "Its not the guns it is the mental illness.  It is not mental illness it is bad parenting and all the rest of it".  The chatter will continue for weeks and slowly dies.  I agree with Michael Moore and what he said,   "Is it too soon to talk about gun control in America?  No, it's too late."

5 comments:

  1. Thank you for this very acute post.
    Guns. Yes. Sadly we too have a few of them, from the period my hb used to go duck hunting.
    That was ages ago. He lost his interest all of a sudden. Not long ago, we decided to get rid of them, but they are still here.
    But, not for very long now, I´ll make sure of that.

    Such terrible news o n c e again. The motive for the shooting is not clear yet, but is it really important to know the motive?
    What´s done, is done. Those killed are dead. Nothing and no one can bring them back again.

    The really terrible thing about an incidence like the one described, is that we really don´t have to wait long for the next shooting.

    Forcing people to give up their guns is impossible.
    As you mentioned, the reasons for these horrible actions must be solved.
    Actually, very few " mentally ill " people ( diagnosed as such ) are responsible for the violence actions.
    I agree, that in many cases, we parents are responsible for the behavior of our kids.
    Something, somewhere in the raising up of our children went wrong.
    Perhaps we are not sensitive enough to see and listen to our children and seek for help in time.
    Today and tomorrow we are horrified and worried. Slowly this happening will fade away from our mind..

    Something must change, NOW.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Well said. I live in CT and know Newtown well.

    ReplyDelete
  3. We cant turn a blind eye to this anymore. SOMETHING needs to be done.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Good morning my dear,

    I too am stunned at the constant news about this incident and that incident happening here and there. I am asking myself, "WHAT IS HAPPENING TO PEOPLE?" Without solid answers, I just know one thing: THE WORLD NEEDS TO CHANGE. The "HOW" will have to be dealt with daily, locally, personally. Those children and adults....they are gone from us. THEY ARE free, probably praying for US to get our world together. Oh so much to think about, so much to change.

    Thank you kindly for coming over last night! Anita

    ReplyDelete
  5. I am so sick of people loving their guns. I fault "Hollywood" to a great extent for glorifying them. People are so desensitized to violence, guns and the like because it's all over TV, the movies, video games. Add in a mentally unstable individual with access to a weapon and you have a recipe for disaster. I do know there's absolutely no reason under the sun for a person to own an assault rifle.

    ReplyDelete