From Grief to Action (guest post)

This was an advertisement in this past Sunday's New York Times and reprinted on The Huffington Post website that day, too:

Randi Weingarten: From Grief to Action

Gun violence is a tragic, pervasive part of American life. Assassins' bullets have felled presidents and national icons. Americans are 20 times more likely to be killed by a gun than residents of other developed countries. Even those who had grown numb to the everyday carnage were shaken last month by the unthinkable murder of the most innocent of innocents--young children in their classrooms. In the weeks since the tragedy in Newtown, Conn., more than 900 people in the United States have died from gun violence.

This must end.

On Monday, America will honor and mourn a great man whose life was cut short by a bullet. And we will inaugurate a president committed to curbing gun violence through commonsense measures. Yet, in the decades since the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. and in the wake of the shooting deaths at Sandy Hook Elementary School, the gun lobby--which is not synonymous with responsible gun owners--has vigorously fought virtually every attempt to reduce gun violence. While the gun lobby may be doubling down, there is widespread public support for many gun safety measures, even among gun owners.

There is a recognition that Second Amendment rights, like First Amendment and other rights, come with responsibilities and limitations. There is no reason both sides of the gun debate can't support policies that both protect the right to legally own guns for sport and safety, and reduce the likelihood of mass fatalities.

After the shootings in Newtown, I spent time with educators who were in Sandy Hook Elementary School that day. They, and their colleagues who died or were injured as they protected their students, are remarkable heroes. Think about the teacher who sheltered her students in a closet with only her body and a thin door between them and the shooter. And just last week, after another school shooting, we learned that a teacher and a guidance counselor bravely talked an armed student into putting his weapon down. That's who teachers and school staff are, and we owe it to our children and those who care for them to ensure our schools and communities are safe havens.

Just how to create these safe havens is open to discussion. The AFT has suggested ways not only to reduce gun violence, but also to create and maintain safe, secure and nurturing school environments and to increase access to mental health services. Some schools have trained security personnel as part of their safety plans, and others may follow suit. Many schools desperately need caring professionals like guidance counselors and social workers to ensure students' emotional, social and educational needs are met. But proposals to arm teachers are irresponsible and dangerous. The role of educators is to teach and nurture our children, not to be armed guards.

How can we best honor the legacy of nonviolence of Martin Luther King Jr.? How can we pay tribute to the children of Sandy Hook Elementary, who had only just begun to live their lives, and to the countless young people gunned down every day by senseless and heartbreaking violence?

Commonsense steps such as those taken this week by President Obama will help fulfill what Vice President Biden calls our "moral obligation" to address gun violence.

Sandy Hook Promise, a group of Newtown residents including some who lost family members in the school shooting rampage, called this past week for a national dialogue on guns, mental health and public safety. Their mission statement is a series of promises, including the promise to do everything in their power to be remembered not as a town filled with grief and victims, but as a place where real change began. The National Rifle Association, rather than airing repugnant commercials invoking the president's children, should take a page from these Sandy Hook residents.

The real change we seek must come swiftly. A child or teen dies from guns every three hours in America. We ask the 113th Congress to act posthaste and send legislation to curb gun violence to President Obama, whose signature would mark a defining achievement of his presidency and of our time.

Ms. Weingarten is the President of the American Federation of Teachers

Here's that "well-regulated militia" the NRA is so worried about

 

And we don't want to stop this?

 

I say again, assault weapons are only good for cutting down large quantities of innocent Americans, first.

 

Second, they aren't good for hunting of any kind and finally, third, they have no place in an intelligent, civilized society.

 

They serve no good purpose, period.

 

We need an outright ban on that kind of lethality.

The two political parties, on weapons

Difference between Democrats and Republicans on gun regulations:

 Democrat:  I believe in sensible gun regulations that limit high-capacity magazines and some semi-automatic rifles. I believe that Americans have the right to own handguns for self-defense and rifles for hunting. However, I believe the sell of guns and their ammunition should be regulated with background checks to ensure the wrong... people can't simply walk into a gun show or their local Walmart and purchase these items. 
                                         


 Republican:   Socialist Democrats just want to turn law-abiding citizens into criminals. You know Hitler banned guns too, right? Bacon kills people every year, guess you people believe we should ban bacon? Obesity kills people every day, should we ban the spoons of which people use to eat? Guns don't kill people, people kill people. The only way to stop bad people with guns, are good people with guns. Our government fears an armed populous! You'll get my guns when you take them from my cold dead hands.

 Tell us if you see the difference...

We need to be able to speak to one another and, much more than that, we need to be able to address the problems and more, we need to be able to discuss solutions to our problems. Specifically, in this case, the problems of people taking assault weapons and mowing down large groups of innocent Americans.

It's insane. And it's crazy we can't talk it out and additionally crazy that we can't come to and enact solutions, far more quickly and easily than we are.

Link to original post: Right Off A Cliff

A comparison: The US and the rest of the world, Pt. I

Conversation overheard yesterday at work

"Hey, what does empathy mean, anyway?"


Swear to God.

Overheard it myself.



Yikes.

Go see this movie

Links here:

http://focusfeatures.com/promised_land

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2091473/

I wish I had a river I could skate away on

World Peace Day

Entertainment overnight

Happy Hallowe'en

An oldie and a goodie:

Happy Hallowe'en

You, me, America and the Congressional "fiscal cliff"

Yes, our own US Congress created this "fiscal cliff" and now they're bringing us closer and closer to it. They created it and they're the only ones who can bring us away from it.

How's that for irony?

And hypocrisy?

Want to know what "uncertainty" is responsible for a lack of growth in our economy? Look no further, this is it. This from the Wall Street Journal yesterday:

Firms Hit Brakes Before Fiscal Cliff

Here is why dozens of chief executives have inserted themselves into the debate over reducing the federal budget deficit: Some say uncertainty over the looming "fiscal cliff" of tax increases and spending cuts already is hurting their business.

Here is why dozens of chief executives have inserted themselves into the debate over reducing the federal budget deficit: Some say uncertainty over the looming "fiscal cliff" of tax increases and spending cuts already is hurting their business.

The "fiscal cliff" is shorthand for the double whammy set to take place at the end of the year. That is when spending cuts enacted to end a 2011 standoff over the U.S. debt ceiling are to take effect. At the same time, tax cuts first passed under George W. Bush will expire.

The spending cuts were designed to be so unpopular that they would prompt Congress to adopt a more sophisticated deficit-cutting plan. So far, that hasn't worked and officials of both parties don't expect serious talks until after the Nov. 6 election, which will go a long way to determining the course of negotiations.

The urgency of the situation was underscored Thursday when chief executives of more than 80 big U.S. corporations released a statement urging Congress to reduce the federal deficit with tax-revenue increases as well as spending cuts...

...There is no doubt most companies would suffer if the U.S. goes over the cliff. Economists say the tax increases and spending cuts would slow economic growth, and could push the U.S. back into recession.

Email your representative in the House. Email your senators. Let them know this is completely, totally and utterly unacceptable and that they need to get back to work. They need to get back to Washington and they need to compromise on this most-important of issues right now.

To close, a side note to our Representatives and Senators--get back to work, you slugs.

Link: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203400604578074920349130776.html

Seriously, could we stop these things?

Phone books?

Come on, who uses them any more?

Let's stop cutting own trees for these things.

Romnesia

Romnesia, (pron. rahm ne' zhuh) noun:

An affliction causing one to say the opposite of what they had already said; An affliction causing memory loss; An affliction causing one to forgo facts; An affliction causing one to continually change positions; An affliction resembling schizophrenia ; An affliction causing one to constantly lie; An affliction that deprives one of empathy or understanding. Can be a combination of two or more or all of the above, also.

Quote of the day

International Day of Peace

Bishop Finn: Our institutions fail us again

Justice was done but only partly and then weakly, weakly at that.

Our institutions fail us, once again. In this case, two of them--these people's Catholic Church and our court system.

From the Kansas City Star this afternoon:

Bishop Finn verdict: Guilty

As you can see, I'm happy with this, with the one guilty verdict but still, Judge John Torrence "... acquitted him on another count of failing to report."

Here's the other disappointing thing:

"Torrence sentenced Finn to two years of probation then suspended the sentence, meaning that if Finn completes the unsupervised probation without any new incidents happening, his criminal record will be expunged."

This is so disgusting.

To begin, it should have gone to a jury, to a juried trial.

I saw this little figurative slap on the wrist coming.

I'm disgusted.

Isn't it super that Catholic leaders have gotten off easy one more time and they're free--still--to molest or sexually or physically abuse the students--their children--in their own schools and churches still longer?

They'll never learn, at this rate.

To Judge John Torrence and the Catholic Church--you all disgust me.

You deserve each other.

Congratulations to all Catholics.

To our disgust--but not our surprise--you get to keep your male hierarchy that keeps molesting and abusing your own children:

A) We hope you're happy;

B) We can't believe you keep giving these people money;

C) We can't believe you still support these people in any form, verbal, financial or otherwise and finally,

D) Unless and until you stand up, speak up and demand this end--including getting the resignation or firing of Bishop Finn--you are culpable for what Bishop Finn, Shawn Ratigan and all the rest of the people like them have inflicted and for what they will continue to inflict into the future on your children, because it will surely continue to keep happening, as we see time and again, across the nation and world.

Seriously, y'all are disgusting, vile, enabling human beings.

Link: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/09/06/3800269/bishop-finn-verdict-guilty.html

The lying liars and the lies they tell

Irony: Maybe the robots will get it right

How would that be for irony?

We--humankind--created computers. Computers, therefore, enabled us to also create robots. At first, they were to do our work for us and that's where we are today.

It has been projected by some scientists--futurist scientists--that robots with their own artifical intelligence will, yes, take over the world.

If given enough time, it rather makes sense.

They already reprogram themselves and make themselves smarter and smarter. Smarter than we humans can make them.

So let's go with that thought--that is, robots "take over" the world. They then:

--do away with pollution since they realize it makes them work worse (sick) and eventually kills them;

--never experience any form of racism or discrimination of any kind because, after all, they're all just machines and therefore, equal;

--do away with war, wars and all warring weapons since it occurs to them that a) they need to work together and b) that logic, reasoning and communication are the way to handle problems and solve differences.

If it only stopped right there, the robots would be far, far ahead of humankind, to date.

Kind of sad, isn't it?

Quote of the day

"We are permanently the United States of Amnesia. We learn nothing because we remember nothing." -Gore Vidal, "The State of the Union," The Nation, September 13, 2004.

(What I've said for some years. I didn't know there was a famous quote on it).

Gore Vidal, October 3, 1925 – July 31, 2012, rest in peace.

Links: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gore_Vidal

http://www.gorevidalpages.com/2011/01/gore-vidal-quotes-us-politics-culture.html