Tag Archives: guns

Political Rants

Ban the bullet.

What is there to say about the Charleston shooting? Another three-foot creep with a four-foot gun. That’s the long of it. I notice most of what’s being talked about is this generic “pure” hatred, evil, etc. Most of the television commentators have been avoiding the “R” word. Hey, folks … it’s called racism. Combine a racist history with a birthday gun, and you’ve got the recipe for Charleston. School friends talk about racist jokes that nobody took seriously. He wore flag patches on his jacket for both Rhodesia and apartheid-era South Africa, Confederate flag license plates. No particular concern? We shall see.

Victim of racism. Say it, people.The sad fact is, racism is a default position in white society, south and north. I grew up in white society, and I have been surrounded by racism my entire life, at various levels of severity. I am certain that, had it not been for the guiding efforts of my mother and my older siblings, I might well have ended up as racist as some of my neighbors. It was, in many ways, the path of least resistance in ’60s middle America. And to this day, when I’m in a room with just white people, racism will occasionally join us in the form of a comment, a joke, etc.

So … that’s a thing. Then there’s the gun culture. The birthday pistol. How you can sell a pistol to someone who advocates race war is beyond me. As much as we have to examine our tendency to look upon black Americans as the “other”, we also have to ponder our devotion to uncle bang-bang. And yes, we’re very unlikely to do anything to slow down the proliferation of firearms. But there is one thing we can do without violating the extremist notion of the 2nd Amendment: ban bullets! You can have all the guns you want, but no freaking bullets. Guns don’t kill people … bullets do. Or adopt Chris Rock’s idea – make bullets cost $5,000 each. That might slow down the Jared Lee Loughners of the world.

Again – these are hard problems. That doesn’t mean we can’t do anything about them. If we are appalled by Charleston, it is incumbent upon us to act. And soon.

luv u,

jp

Political Rants

As expected.

Two events in the news this week struck many – including me – as both depressing and unsurprising. One was the sickening mass killing in California by a depraved disciple of the so-called “men’s rights movement”, something that seems most vibrantly to inhabit the netherworlds of the net. The other is the ever-ballooning VA debacle, fueled by almost daily revelations about other service members and veterans being denied care to the point of death.

No need to explain the depressing element of either of these – the facts are plain and, well, devastating. I will dwell a bit on the unsurprising aspect of the events because it angers me, and as the late Maya Angelou instructed us, anger can be a positive force, so long as it doesn’t lead to bitterness. She has a point there. Would that someone had impressed this upon the young shooter in Isla Vista some years back.

How a grateful nation thanks its veterans.The shooting cannot surprise us, any more than extreme weather can in the wake of Sandy and Katrina. We go through this process every few weeks. We see the head shaking, the somber tones of voice, the promises to do more … and then we’re back at the beginning again. In America, each day is a new beginning; yesterday is forgotten with the next sunrise. Some see this as our promise as a nation, but it’s more of a curse. We keep tripping over the same fold in the carpet, again and again. Somehow, we are helpless.

The same can be said of the VA scandal. This dysfunction is something that pops up over and over again in our history, particularly as wars wind down and soldiers return home in pieces, both physically and mentally. We did not prepare for exponential growth in the population the VA serves, even though we knew it was coming. This was a slow-motion train wreck, and it proves that for all of our magnetic yellow ribbons, all of our bleats of “thank you for your service”, we are still just as dismissive of our veterans as we have been in previous conflicts.

The impetus to address these problems must come from ourselves. These are our failings: we need to address them.

luv u,

jp

Political Rants

Assumptions.

So Zimmerman walks. I can’t say as I’m surprised. It is now apparently legal to kill people in Florida, particularly if your victim is black. I should say not exclusively – my neighbor spends half of his time in Florida, and he told me about a “Stand Your Ground” case at his retirement community wherein a Vietnam Vet shot his wife’s lover dead and got off based on Stand Your Ground. The victim was white, but from another country, so that may have been “other” enough for the law. It seems like if your intention is to kill someone, all you need to do is get them alone in Florida and give them the gun, so to speak. So long as there’s no witnesses, it’s your word against theirs.

That aside, let’s consider what this verdict says, in truth:

Not suspiciousKiller Sidewalks. The Zimmerman trial introduced the concept of the sidewalk as a deadly weapon. I suppose this means that any (black) person strolling down the sidewalk can now be considered armed and dangerous. Amazing what legal and logical gyrations we go through to exonerate a white guy who just shot a black guy dead. Who says he was unarmed? He had that deadly sidewalk! 

Thirty Yards. The prosecution failed not only to discredit the defense’s story but to communicate in concrete terms an alternative story that fit the facts.  Martin’s body was found something like ten yards away from the sidewalk. How could Zimmerman have been in mortal danger when the “deadly weapon” (see above) was that far away from where he shot the kid? Why wasn’t the prosecution all over this like a cheap suit?

Silent Witness. Ultimately, the defense put Trayvon Martin on trial. There is one person who knows what happened that night, and he was sitting in that courtroom wearing his stoic wannabe cop face. Sure, he has a constitutional right not to testify. But I don’t see why the prosecution couldn’t have made more of a point of his reluctance to testify.

The Video. I think the item that defines the core issues in this case is the police station video of Zimmerman being processed by the cops after the shooting. He is not only ambulatory, he seems positively casual. The cops treat him at worst like a crime victim, but really more like a colleague. It’s this assumption of innocence in the face of overwhelming indications of guilt that speaks directly to how race plays a role in the outcome. Based on those assumptions, Martin’s body was not properly examined for forensic evidence, the crime scene was not properly protected … the case was lost then.

Note to John Roberts: racism still appears to be alive.

luv u,

jp