I'm here first to apologize to my blog readers (both of you) for my month plus absence. I've mentioned before that I intended this space to be a vehicle for my meandering mind to wander freely along whatever path it chose. I never intended it to be a place for me to air political worries and annoyances. However, so many recent events have cluttered my addled brain with frustrating thoughts there was no room for musing to emerge in the way I wish. In order to exorcize this demon I've decided to exercise some first amendment rights and speak out the major insanity that now grips us.
Okay, the thing receiving the most hype on the internet and in print is Gun Control. The bill that failed to get the required votes in the Senate, S.150.RS- Assault Weapons Ban of 2013, is 125 pages long; 95 of those pages are a list of weapons exempted from the ban (I read it.) There is nothing in this bill that requires current owners of these weapons to turn them in, nor is there anything requiring current owners of large capacity magazines to turn them in, or exempt their use. Whatever it is that caused gun lobbies to become constipated with fear, is not visible in the bill.
Social networks - read Facebook - are rife with demands that the NRA change its stance (not happening) and that congress grow a set and defy the gun lobby (also not happening.) The problem with demands in the case of the gun lobby is that they further constrict the sphincter of the fearful. The problem with demands in the case of congress is that they only work when written in the memo line of a large check. So what do we do? We vote! But our vote doesn't count, you say? It sure won't if you don't use it.
Only 57.5% of eligible voters actually exercised their right in the 2012 election. Put in more understandable terms, over 93,000,000 Americans who could have voted, didn't. That's just wrong.
Now maybe I can get back to my mental meanderings with the hope that this country starts making sense, and supports candidates with a backbone, and a heart.
Okay, the thing receiving the most hype on the internet and in print is Gun Control. The bill that failed to get the required votes in the Senate, S.150.RS- Assault Weapons Ban of 2013, is 125 pages long; 95 of those pages are a list of weapons exempted from the ban (I read it.) There is nothing in this bill that requires current owners of these weapons to turn them in, nor is there anything requiring current owners of large capacity magazines to turn them in, or exempt their use. Whatever it is that caused gun lobbies to become constipated with fear, is not visible in the bill.
Social networks - read Facebook - are rife with demands that the NRA change its stance (not happening) and that congress grow a set and defy the gun lobby (also not happening.) The problem with demands in the case of the gun lobby is that they further constrict the sphincter of the fearful. The problem with demands in the case of congress is that they only work when written in the memo line of a large check. So what do we do? We vote! But our vote doesn't count, you say? It sure won't if you don't use it.
Only 57.5% of eligible voters actually exercised their right in the 2012 election. Put in more understandable terms, over 93,000,000 Americans who could have voted, didn't. That's just wrong.
Now maybe I can get back to my mental meanderings with the hope that this country starts making sense, and supports candidates with a backbone, and a heart.
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Comments are always from "anonymous". Often I can identify the author by the content of the comment, but that much cogitation makes my 80 year-old brain tired. Please help out an old man and identify yourself within the text of the comment. Thanks for the comments whether or not you ID yourself. Tom