December | 2012 | Psalmboxkey's Blog

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Archive for December, 2012

Gun Control, A Citizen Speaks Up, Part 8

Christmas Day 2012

The National Rifle Association’s 4 million mothers, fathers, sons and daughters join the nation in horror, outrage, grief and earnest prayer for the families of Newtown, Connecticut . . .

Wayne Lapierre, NRA Press Conference, December 21, 2012

Outrage?, grief? Really?

Last summer my great niece, Valeta, aged 4, and I had a conversation about sincerity and what that means. Seems like a complicated subject for a four-year old, but she listened intently to my explanation of what it meant to be sincere. I told her about the frog I have in my garden. He is called the “Heartfelt Frog” for he holds his hands to his heart and looks up toward the sky. I explained to Valeta that sincerity means honestly saying how you actually feel and how the frog earned “heartfelt” because his sentiments came from his heart. I demonstrated by placing my hands on my heart. Valeta immediately shadowed my actions and held her hands to her heart.

Five months went by, and one day Valeta asked my sister, her grandmother, if she could visit the heartfelt frog in my garden. We live a long distance from each other so this Christmas I painted her a picture for her room.

Does the spokespearson for the NRA feel a sense of true loss for these families? These losses are tragically painful. And if the NRA’s response was truly heartfelt, they would assume responsibility to correct the injustice of these deaths. Does the NRA understand that their actions in support of all weapons is responsible for the deaths of 30,000 people in the United State every year? Being heartfelt means that an utterance of expression of grief and outrange translates to acts that promises reconciliation and correction.

A four-year old can understand this; for the the NRA, they are forever locked in their selfish pursuit of pleasure at the expense of the on-going tragedies of gun deaths for the rest of us.

Category:

Philosophy, Social Justice

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Gun Control, A Citizen Speaks Up, Part 6

Dear Mike,

Appreciate your responding to my blog post Part 5. I found it difficult to write that last post against hunting. I have a serious disconnect between how much I loved and admired your father and attempting to understand his enthusiasm for hunting when my passion has been as an advocate against hunting and guns. As a child, I wrote letters to newspapers against hunting; my mother instilled a respect for animals and a deep commitment to relieve their suffering. We would take in birds that were injured or orphaned. Yet, I was touched by Joe’s yard . . . his bird feeders and the statue of the fawn. I remain open to exploring and listening to what you have to say on the subject. The idea now is to have a conversation about the 30,000 Americans killed by gun fire every year. Both my children live in West Philly, where shooting deaths happen frequently.

I wish we could come up with a kinder and gentler solution to the deer overpopulation problem. You make a good point about the issue of starvation or coyote attacks. While I make the case for animals being close to us in nature, for wildlife selecting other alternatives for predation is not an option, of course! I wish the lion and lamb could lie down next to each other. In the natural world, we would have to leave that relationship alone. For humans, we do have other choices, and compassion for our fellow creatures is something that will benefit us both.

We must rely on automobiles, and animals on the road do pose a hazard. Contraception technologies are available, however; the one-shot/multi-year techniques can achieve a zero reproductive rate for about three years.

About fifteen years ago, I became a vegetarian. Initially, I found it difficult to give up meat–hamburgers, especially. Gradually, I got used to not eating meat and our diet changed considerably for the family. We began to get out of our rut of standard meals and began experimenting with vegetable dishes. A completely new world of flavors opened to the family. Many health benefits arise from lower intakes of saturated fat and cholesterol from animal protein. Studies have shown that vegetarian diets are beneficial in the prevention and treatment of diabetes, cancer, hypertension and dementia, to name a few. When we use soy crumbles instead of meat, in most dishes, you can’t tell the difference! Cutting down on meat has a positive effect on the environment, negatively affected by the global meat industrial complex and the lead from bullets that pollute soil and water. Sounds as if Gay is a good cook; I’m sure she could make very tasty meatless dishes.

Category:

Social Justice

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Gun Control: A Citizen Speaks Up, Part 3

Photograph: J. R. Blackwell

On Friday evening, December 14, I went to bed with a migraine as I continued to be haunted by the thought of parents grieving for their children killed at the Sandy Hook School. Gazing at my Christmas tree, I thought about the holidays ahead, the gifts that will remained unopened. A tragedy of this magnitude affects all of us. For me, a debilitating headache; for those families, a debilitating heartache.

The only thing that cures my emotional overload is taking action. I’ve always been a gun-control advocate; now has to be the time to address the injustice of unregulated gun purchases.

One of my friends of Facebook asked: “Those kids, Why little babies?” My response: Because the sale of deadly firearms has been ok with us.

That response triggered a flurry of comments:

“Stop trying to advance your political agenda at the expense of this horrible tragedy. Instead of trying to politicize it.”

But victims of shooting crimes were speaking out that very night against gun violence, and an email from Roxanne Green, whose daughter was killed in the Arizona shooting stated, “I’ve heard a lot of promises from politicians since my daughter was murdered in Tucson, Arizona, including President Obama. But I am still waiting for them to act.” Steven Barton, wrote the same evening of his harrowing experience of being shot during the Batman movie, stating: There was no action taken to make sure that something so horrific never happened again. Washington avoided starting a meaningful dialogue on gun violence, and the costs of that were tragic.

I cannot presume in one post to solve this problem of gun violence. I propose a series of questions to consider:

Over thirty Americans are murdered with guns every single day. Our broken laws remain ineffective, and our political leaders have been unable to stop gun violence. What can citizens do to mobilize for gun control?
Has the “right to bear arms” morphed into an American obsession and addiction? Is an accurate interpretation of the Second Amendment entitle citizens to own guns and is this right absolute?
What role has the NRA and other gun lobbyists played in thwarting the “will of the people” to regulate guns, as polls show the Americans support specific policies regulating guns. Why are lobby groups given this power?
Does the American health care system support those afflicted with mental disorders? Is there widespread support to help those with mental disabilities and their families? In what places does our system fall short?
What specific regulations could be passed immediately that most citizens would support?
Would criminalizing verbal threats to life and identifying individuals who display dangerous and violent behaviors, preventing access to firearms be an effective strategy?
We are a world community. How do we address war and violence sanctioned by the state?
How do we examine our culture to determine how the society encourages violent solutions and reactions?
Why not pass laws that make it illegal not to have guns locked and secured and keys unavailable to anyone but the owner with huge fees and penalties for breaking these laws? Why not mandate that gun owners carry mandatory insurance?
How does the freedom to own guns impose on the freedom from the dangers that guns bring to the public?
How do we educate folks to seek answers to this complex problem. One Facebook response, the tragedy “had nothing to do with fire arms.” Why are segments of the American population in denial about our gun culture?

We do know that if the current state of gun regulation remains the same, these shootings will continue to happen over and over and over again.

Category:

Politics, Social Justice

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Holiday Tree for Social Justice

Learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed. Isaiah 1:17

Inspired by my son John and his friend Jim’s activism for social justice causes, especially as advocates for workers’ rights, I decorated a holiday tree for them in the spirit of the season. Resurrecting a 30 year-old artificial tree, recycling/altering old ornaments and repurposing activist buttons . . . voila! an activist holiday tree!